Interuptions
by Nadie2
Summary: If Sam was a civilian when she met Jack it all would have gone smoothly, right? Well...our friends on SG-1 are not exactly famous for their great romantic relationships. There are going to be a few things on the way to true happiness for these two. It begins on the eve before season 1.
1. In Which Jack Dances

"Can I buy you a drink?" the man asks. Sam turns to survey him. He's in his early twenties, way too young for her she thinks. Not that his age is the only thing against him. He has a beer belly, artificially blond spikey hair, and teeth you can't look away from. He was maybe a four (if you were generous). With her long blond hair, bright blue eyes, and biker chick clothes she is a ten, easy. If she had any flaw, it was that her face was caked with way too much make-up.

"No thanks," she says holding up her diet coke.

"How about a dance then? He asks noticing the way her head is bobbing to the beat of the music.

"I didn't really come here for this," she says looking past him in a way that clearly shows the conversation is over.

If she was more honest she would have told him that she hadn't meant to come here at all. She had meant to go on a motorcycle ride, and she stopped here on an impulse. She really didn't belong here.

"What did you come here for?" he asks leaning heavy on the counter and invading her personal bubble.

"I can see that you are shocked that women sometimes have motives that don't have anything to do with finding a guy, but it turns out that it is true," she says taking a big step back to regain some space.

"Feminazi," he mutters walking off.

Sam swallows the last of her soda and heads to the door. She really should be at home unpacking right now anyway.

Then he walks in.

He's got on these tight jeans and a leather coat. He tips his sunglasses down on his nose. He doesn't even look around the room but just saunters up to the bar. He's a man on a mission.

The drink takes only a few seconds to arrive in his hand (apparently, they know him here), but she still manages to get by his side before he takes his first sip. It's clear that he didn't come in here to hit on women any more than she came here to be hit on, but Sam has never been known for her good sense when it came to men.

"You want to dance?" she asks.

He surveys her with a smile quacking at the corners of his lips, but never quite materializing. "I don't dance."

She leans forward and whispers, "I promise not to care."

He's ten years older than her at least. Just looking at her makes him a creepy old man. Touching her enough to dance is so far beyond forbidden he is out of taboo words for it (and he's got a big enough vocabulary that that's saying something). If she was his daughter he would kill someone like him who laid a finger on her.

She wasn't his daughter though.

She slips out of the leather jacket to reveal a shimmery silver tank top, and she offers him her hand.

He's a goner. He follows her out of the dance floor, but really, he would have followed her to the end of the Earth.

He wasn't really lying about not being the best dancer. They just stand there in the middle of the dance floor rocking back and forth like they are at a junior high dance.

He starts with hands just barely on her hip and shoulder, arm length apart, only fingers touching her skin carefully through fabric. Every time they shift from one foot to another they come closer together. Perhaps an increase pressure of his fingers, or a smaller distance between their quickly rising and falling chests.

Before the song ends most of their bodies are pressed together. Her head is on the shoulder, his hand is on her ass, and there is an echo of a nun from high school scolding Jack for not leaving enough room for the Holy Spirit between him and his dance partner.

She feels safe, although she warns herself that that is a crazy thing to think about a stranger.

They dance together for five dances in a row, but neither of them could have told you that. It was one of those glorious moments that lasts forever and no time at all.

Then she feels her back pressed against a wall. If it was Jonas pushing her like this she would be in fight mode. She would let this stranger do anything to her, and it terrifies her.

She moans, and he is certain it is the best sound he has ever heard. He is already planning ways that he could make her make the sound every day of their lives together.

Her mind registers the fact that they are in a dark hallway next to a restroom, and the idea of taking him by the hand and leading him into a stall for love making occurs to her. She wonders if he is a drug, because exposure to him is certainly affecting her ability to make rational decisions.

"I've never done this before," she breaths.

"Kissed?" he asks surprised. He pauses the kisses to speak, but his breath is still near her clavicle (where he was last kissing) and it causes goose bumps to cover her body.

"Kissing a stranger in a bar, yeah."

"Me too, I knew my wife for months before we got this close," he admits.

She puts her hand on his chest, and pushes him away. She misses his body against hers even with this shock, "Wife?"

"I'm sorry. Ex-wife. I actually came here tonight because I just got served the divorce papers, and wanted to get drunk. We've been separated for the better part of a year though."

"So am I better than a beer for forgetting?" Sam asks him with her hand still pushing him away (although she might be enjoying his muscles with at least part of her brain now.)

"Much better," he says with a school boy grin.

She should be smarter than this. She should have learned by now. She is drawn to the damage, to the pain. It always ends badly. It **will** always end badly. She should walk away now.

She moves her hand a little and feels the familiar square of a dog tag. Of course, a soldier. It's always the soldiers and the train wrecks.

She pulls the dog tag out so she can read it, "J. O'Neill."

"Jack," he supplies. Then he pulls out he necklace that falls beneath the tank top. "A star," he observes.

"I'm an astrophysicist, and my mom thinks giving me stars for every holiday is really funny."

His eyes light up, "I have a big telescope."

"I'll bet you do," she says suggestively letting her eyes wander to his crotch for just a second.

He chuckles at her joke without making a sound, "A real one. Of course it's stupid for me to offer it, because at work you probably have much better ones."

"Well, I haven't actually done a whole lot of professional telescope looking."

"Ah, you're one of those scientists who spend their days stooped over a bunch of numbers," he teases.

"Dude, you turned me down so you could make out with some old dude?" the guy from earlier says in disgust.

Sam leans forward to whisper in Jack's ear, "Want to take my bike to your house to check out that giant telescope?"

Jack is more than happy with her plan. But then, we've established that he would be perfectly happy following her anywhere.

 **Unbeted, sorry folks.**


	2. In Which Sam and Jack See Stars

"Okay, first thing," Jack instructs standing as close behind her as a tennis instructor who knows nothing about tennis, "Look through without moving the telescope."

Sam obeys, and is greeted by a star that is more than a little familiar to her.

"That's your star," he tells her.

"You can't just give me a star," she protests, "That one has planets orbiting her. For all you know one of them could be full of life.

He grins because actually he **does** know that one of them does contain life. He met the people who lived there.

"So, you can't just give it away," she repeats. "How would you feel if someone on another planet just gave away Earth to impress his mate?"

"Well, I would hope it worked for him," Jack says kissing her neck.

"I think we can give the female alien a bit more faith than that. I'm sure she can see through his antics."

"Oh of course she can," he replies, "She is very smart. That doesn't mean that she wouldn't pretend to be impressed because she wants to kiss him as much as he wants to kiss her."

"You're right, this alien does sound pretty smart," she says turning around to kiss him. Her hands slip between his hair and skull and the feeling is way more amazing than he predicted. He suddenly finds himself understanding why his grandfather used to enjoy his head massages by the hair dresser so much.

His hands are on her hips, and this time they don't wonder to her ass. He leaves them on her hips appreciating how strong she is. There is something glorious about her stance. Something…military about it.

The she shifts, "Your telescope is jabbing me."

"Sorry," he says looking down at the budge in his pants.

"I didn't mean that one," she says glancing behind her.

"You want to move somewhere more comfortable?" he suggests.

She doesn't quite know this man well enough to go in with him into the house. He senses the tension in her body, and sits down on the floor of the deck. She joins him, sitting between his legs.

"For a woman like you, a single solar system is not enough," he observes.

She giggles at his absurdity, and leans against them.

"I mean, a galaxy at least. Maybe a cluster."

"You know, if you decided to stop talking about the universe as if it were your backyard I would like you just as much," she teases.

"But then how would you know you were worthy of a whole galaxy of your own?" he asks running his fingers down her arms. He is barely touching her, and still leaving a trail of gooseflesh in his wake.

She makes that moan sound that drives him crazy, and then she clears her throat, which is kind of weird. No, wait, it was not her throat that just got cleared. It belongs to the eyes under an Air Force Beretta that have just arrived over the top of his deck.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Sir, but it has to do with," the soldier looks at the civilian, "Project Stargate."

The man has chosen the only word in a thousand galaxies which would have made Jack O'Neill his roof with a beautiful woman and follow a man.

"I'm sorry, I really have to go," He apologized standing up.

"I understand," she says.

"Will you give me your name and number before we go?" he pleads.

"Oh, I have a feeling that we are going to be seeing each other soon," she assures him.

He can't bear the thought of losing contact with her, so he pulls out a pen and offers her his arm. She scrawls the name "Samantha Carter" on it along with her number. The numerals are far larger than they would need to be, and he is mesmerized by how sensual the cursive of her name feels on his skin.

He feels claimed by her, marked, and he really likes the feeling.

 **Author's Note: I posted this story twice! Sorry about that. I deleted the one who had fewer reviews, but I sincerly appologize to the two of you that had your reviews deleted along with my story mistake!**


	3. Jack Learns the Definition of Booty Call

Sam ends up falling asleep on her couch. She should have unpacked, but she didn't. That comes as no surprise since she has been avoiding unpacking all night. She managed to look through boxes long enough to locate a blanket. The search for a pillow went on long enough that she just abandoned it though. The arm rest of the couch worked well enough.

At least until she woke up in the middle of the night with an unreal kind of kink in her neck. At first she thinks that she has been woke up by the pain in her neck, but then she hears the ringing of the phone.

She scrambles to locate the phone, but fails miserably, mostly because she is crawling across the floor for most of her search. She is about to crawl back onto her bed couch when the phone starts ringing again.

Of course, anyone desperate enough to call her in the middle of the night would be desperate enough to call her more than once. This time she is awake enough to remember her phone is on the counter.

"Hello," she croaks with a voice still cloaked in sleep.

"Sorry to wake you," the smooth voice replies in the phone. She only met him today, how can she already recognize his voice?

"It's okay," she assures him surprised at the smile that is forming on the edges of her lip. This man has an influence on her more than she would like to admit.

"So is it too creepy if I tell you that I missed you?"

"Probably, but sadly I seem to have a thing for stockers," Sam confesses.

"You want to come over?" he asks sounding as nervous as a teenager talking to a girl for the first time in his life.

"I don't really do booty calls," she responds. This man has a really bad influence on her judgment, but she is not going to let him completely take over her mind. Mostly because she wants something with this man that is going to last longer than a single night.

"I don't even know what that means," he says.

"It's when you call up someone in the middle of the night just so you can have sex with them," she says blushing at her own words. She can remember her mother's advice during a really detailed sex talk when she was fifteen, "If you can't talk about it, then you are certainly not ready to do it."

"Oh, well then this isn't that," Jack says.

Sam glances at the clock on her oven, only to discover that she hasn't set it yet. She glances at her watch which she can barely see in the dim light of her kitchen, "It's one o'clock in the morning."

"I wasn't really arguing with the part where it was late at night," he says.

"I'm sorry, but we…" she clears her throat, "We were pretty close to doing something today. If I went over there right now I'm sure we would."

"That's probably true," he admits, "We could just talk on the phone, that should be safe."

"Something is wrong," she guesses.

"I'm getting recalled to active duty," he admits.

"I take it that you got pretty used to retirement," she hints. She is kind of glad that he isn't going to stay retired. I mean, military retirees are way younger than other retirees, but she still thinks of herself as way too young to date someone who is retired.

"There was a time when I loved the Air Force. I was just getting used to the idea that that part of my life was over," Jack says surprising himself with how easily he is sharing all of this with someone who is pretty much a stranger. If he had been this open with his wife, he might still be married.

"What changed?" Sam asks.

The emotional door slam shut, "I went through a pretty tough time."

"With your divorce?" she guesses.

"Sure," he replies adding in his head that it had a lot more to do with the what lead to the divorce than with the divorce itself. "Was your dad Air Force?" he asks, because he is desperate for a subject change.

"Yeah, he still is. How did you guess?" she asks suddenly getting a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach with the idea that this man might have gone to a military base to research her.

"It was the way you stand. I could tell that you had played soldier with an actual soldier at some point in your life. Of course it could have been an uncle or something a bit more distant, but you knew a dog tag by touch. It was like you had leaned your little toddler head against one."

"Yes, that's true, but my ability to know a dog tag has more to do with my ex-boyfriend," she admits.

"Ah, so your relationship with the armed forces an even more complicated than I thought," he prompts.

She sighs, "Yeah, it is a bit of a love hate relationship. I mean I totally loved getting to see the world when I was a kid. Then there is the Air Force community which is the tightest knit community you will ever find. There is a lot of safety in that. Which is ironic, because I spent most of my life not knowing if someone I love was going to come home that day or not."

Jack sighs, the last comment dove tailing with his own thoughts far more than he would like to admit. "Yes, and I am going back to that danger now. I used to…prefer it, but that part of my life is over now."

Sam senses that he just shared more than he wanted to, and decides to help him cover it up with a funny story, "We lived in France for six months. My mom kept swearing in French by accident. My brother and I were teenagers at the time, so we just let her. Then there was this big dinner party, and my mother was saying the most vial things to my dad's boss," she giggles.

When the sun reaches through the window in the morning to wake Sam she finds herself sitting on the floor of the kitchen with the phone still in her ear.

"Jack?" she asks softly.

"Mmmm?" he says waking up slowly.

"I think we just slept together," she tells him.

He giggles, "Should we have breakfast together then?"

Sam's stomach revolts against the suggestion, "I don't really feel like eating."

"Come on, it's the most important meal of the day."

"How about we meet up after work?" she suggests.

Jack pauses making sure he doesn't cross that bold classified line that he often dances right up to, "I don't exactly know when work is going to be over for me today."

Sam ponders, "You know that's probably true for me too."

Jack isn't quite sure why she thinks that is funny, "I'll call you as soon as I can."

"I'll see you soon Jack," Sam says with way more confidence than he has.


	4. In Which Sam Arm Wrestles

As Jack waits for the meeting to start he can't help but think about how much he would rather be hanging out with a certain blond beauty. He can't remember if he has ever been so completely taken with a woman that he can't think logically.

"Carter," the General says. Does he have it so bad he is actually hallucinating, Jack can't help but wonder. I mean, there is no way the General just said her name for real, is there?

"Where is he transferring from?" Kowalski asks.

" **She** is transferring from the Pentagon," walking into the room like a vision from a dream (which he is really hoping she isn't). Her long white lab coat is almost covering her flowing flowery dress, but every once in a while it shows between steps as she walks. Her hair is pulled back in a pony, and glasses are perched on her nose. The massive amount of make-up that was caked on face had made a certain amount of sense last night in a bar, but it seems out of place here at work.

He can't decide if he likes her better in the motorcycle chick garb, or dressed as a scientist. He knows for sure that he really likes that there are lots of sides to her, and he wonders how many more sides there are left for him to discover.

She shoots him a mischievous grin which erases any thoughts he had that she didn't know that this exact moment was going to happen the minute the Airman on his roof deck said the words, "Project Stargate."

"Doctor Samantha Carter, reporting for duty," she says. Her hand looks like it is going to go up into a salute for just a second, but then it changes its mind, and she extends it for a hand shake instead.

"Civilian?" he asks licking his lips that have suddenly become quite dry.

She nods her head with a mouth quirking at how stunned he is.

"A scientist," he repeats. Thanking his lucky stars that she was not about to be working under him.

He would much rather she was under him in a far more literal sense.

"But of course you go by Sam," Kowalski teases.

"Don't worry. I played with dolls as a kid," she teases back. She already knows how to deal with soldiers. Of course she would have, she had no doubt been dealing with them since she was no more than a little girl.

"GI Joe?" Kowalski returns with equal speed.

"Major Matt Mason," she returns.

Jack quickly stores the information. He has been in the dating pool long enough to know that actually listening to a woman is the secret to winning their heart.

"Who?" Kowalski says, not to the woman who is guaranteed to know the answer, Sam observes, but to his male friend beside him.

The guy knows the answer, "Astronaut doll," Ferretti returns his attention to her, "Did you have the little backpack that made him fly?"

Jack is trying to find his footing in this conversation, but just then the conversation is brought to an abrupt end with the General starting the meeting.

-0-

Sam can feel it in the very energy of the room. She has not yet proven herself. She has to do more than joke with them to earn their esteem. "I was studying the gate for two years before Daniel Jackson made it work and you both went through. I should have gone through then, and I will this time," she says with a fierce jut of her chin. "Is that tough enough for you or are we going to have to arm wrestle?"

The boys (for that is what they are acting like right now) laugh at her words.

She wanted respect, and she doesn't know how she is going to get it now.

Jack clears his throat, "Oh this has nothing to do with you being a woman," he smirks, "I like women."

Better to have them laughing at him than her. Sam shoots a smirk at him as the discussion around the table turns to the subject of whether or not they should even go through the gate at all.

When the meeting is over Jack tries to corner her to ask why she is acting like she doesn't know him. He is really hoping it is because she doesn't want people to know about their relationship and not that there isn't one.

It wasn't nothing to him.

Kowalski cuts off Jack before he can get to her by saying, "Not that I don't believe you are as tough as you say, but…"

"But you still want to arm wrestle me?" Sam suggests with a sparkle in her eye. She knows that this is acceptance. This is her winning the battle that she had back in that room.

Most of the soldiers from the briefing room follow the pair, no doubt curious about who is going to come out the victor in the contest.

Jack walks off muttering about how disloyal Kowalski is under his breath. He doesn't go to see the contest, because he couldn't bare it if she was as easy and cheerful with another man.


	5. Jack Tells Sam Exactly How He Feels

She carries the weight of her pack as if she were used to carrying far heavier things. He is surprised how well she handles it since she never went to any military training. Her face is full of cold determination.

He wonders if she won the arm wrestling. I mean, the game is all physics, and Kowalski is probably dumb enough to be overconfident.

"Doctor…" he begins.

"Don't worry. I won't disappoint you," she says, and he wonders how her psychology got so twisted up that she would be worried about that right now. All he can manage to worry about is whether or not there is still something between them.

Although to be fair, she does already know the answer to that question a whole lot more than he does.

"I was going to say ladies first," he smirks at the blatant attempt to bate her into a feminist rant.

She sees what he is doing quite clearly, and doesn't take the bait. "You really will like me when you get to know me," she says playfully.

A strange promise, especially considering all the of the deep dark secrets that the who of them shared last night.

"Oh I adore you already, Doctor," he says with a voice he struggles to keep terse enough to sound like the words are nothing but teasing.

A few steps more bring them to the edge of the even horizon.

"My god," she says and for a second he thinks he has cracked her, and they are going to talk about the thing that may or may not be between them right there in the gate room in front of everyone. Then she continues, "Look at this." Of course, he should have known that reverend tone was not directed at him, "The energy the gate must release to create a stable wormhole. It's astronomical to use exactly the right word," she reaches out and touches the gate with enough force that it shimmers away from her as if wounded. "You can actually see the fluctuations in the event horizon."

Jack figures a scientist like her could probably spend a lifetime looking at the event horizon before she actually went through, so he gives her a shove. Then he shakes his head before heading through the event horizon himself.

When he gets to the other side of the event horizon he finds the amazing Samantha Carter losing her lunch.

"You probably shouldn't have had that big breakfast then," he teases her knowing that she didn't have breakfast.


	6. In Which Sam Sleeps with Daniel

Sam tentatively knocks on the door to Jack's house. She really hopes that he will be able to forgive him for the way that she greeted him earlier in the conference room. She never would have pretended not to know him if General Hammond had not been their commanding officer. She really didn't need her father's best friend to know that she'd become romantically entangled with her boss before her father even knew that she had broken up with her fiancé.

More than that she respected and downright admired General Hammond. She never wanted to do anything that might lower herself in his eyes. At least not on purpose.

She also relied on George in a very practical way. She hated the idea of relying on anyone, but she had made a very good trade when she started relying on General Hammond instead of Jonas Hanson. Still if she were to get the idea that she were repeating her mistakes and didn't deserve a second chance…Well, if she were to get fired she wouldn't really have anywhere else to turn.

Living with either her parents or her brother was just plain not an option. They were not able to get through a meal while being civil to each other, how could they survive a lifetime as inmates in the same rooms?

"Hell of a mission huh?" Jack asks.

Sam nods, but stands there dumbly unable to get any of the things she had so carefully rehearsed out of her head.

"You want a beer?" Jack asks.

When she nods her head again this provides enough excuse for him to disappear inside his house, and for her to follow him.

"You know we aren't in the same chain of command, right?" he asks as he hands her a beer.

"I know," she mutters bashfully glad some words have finally gotten past the block in her lips.

"Okay, I thought you were military enough to understand that things between us wouldn't exactly be forbidden. Is there some other reason that…" he asks, and she is shocked at how worried his face looks as he looks at her with hope.

"I just got out of a relationship, and…" she begins.

He knows the goodbye speech, the let down speech. He doesn't want to hear it again. "Look Carter. I am way too old for the soft and fluffy bull shit we tell people when we don't want to be with them anymore. If you don't want to get into something with me that's fine, but just be honest about the reason."

She looks down, "I didn't say I want out. I just don't want Hammond to know I'm dating you."

"Carter," he says still needing a bit of professional distance between them, "We aren't doing anything wrong here."

"I know," she almost whispers, "but I know Hammond. I have known him since before I could talk. He helped me get this job right after another relationship blew up in my face."

"You're kidding me! You are the most qualified person I've ever…overqualified for this position even," he's so flabbergasted that he can't even talk, and he can't remember the last time that that happened to him.

She sets her unsiped beer on the counter and kisses him. The lips touch sweet and romantic, but her body presses him against the counter in a way that is almost aggressive. A way that he can't help but have a reaction to.

The doorbell rings.

"They'll go away," Jack promises.

Then four more rings each coming faster and faster after the last.

"And I'll be getting the door then," Jack grumbles as he positively stomps off.

She giggles at his childish antics.

"Daniel," Jack gambles.

"Sorry," the anthropologist says embarrassed, "I'll go back to the base and sleep on the floor or something."

"Come in. I'll grab you a beer," Jack says.

"Doctor Sam!" Daniel greets her cheerfully when he catches sight of her in Jack's living room.

"Hi," she replies laughing as Jack grins at her. "I thought I was interrupting something, but it looks like you already have company," Daniel says brightly.

"Sam's house has some problems so her move in was delayed," Jack lies.

"Maybe you don't have room for me," Daniel says looking every bit the orphan that he is, "But I would be happy to sleep on the couch or even the floor."

Sam hands Daniel her own beer from the counter so that he will feel at home, and hopefully not guess what they had been doing a few seconds before he walked into the house.

"It's fine. I have bunk beds," Jack says.

"You have bunk beds?" Sam says in amused disbelief. I mean, the guy acts childish, sure, but bunk beds? That's taking the whole extended childhood a step too far!

"For his kids," Daniel explains as if Sam was completely dense.

"You have KIDS?" Sam explains in shock to Jack right over Daniel's head.

"Where are your kids by the way?" Daniel says looking around as if he might have missed them in the corner of the kitchen.

Sam feels the answer like a huge stone in her heart, "With his ex-wife I suppose."

"Divorce? I'm sorry," Daniel says with such true sentiment that Sam feels like a monster for being glad that Jack isn't still married.

"Did you know his ex?" Sam asks. If so she is definitely going to pump Daniel for information when Jack isn't within earshot.

"No, Jack and I didn't really become friends until we were off world. Daniel takes his first sip of the beer that Sam has handed him. "This is going straight to my head."

"Maybe we'd all better hit the sack," Jack observes.

"I should probably go home," Sam hedges. It would have been strange enough to spend the night at Jack's house if it had only been Jack, but spending the night with two of her male teammates was completely out of the question. Especially if the night were spent in a bunk bed with Daniel.

"Stay," Jack commands with eyes full of emotions.

So she shrugs and stays.

The spare room is small and filled with divorced dad guilt presents.

He has a daughter, she realizes. Probably quite young judging by the pink, and princesses, and white frills everywhere. The whole bottom bunk has been converted into a sort of fort with taffeta.

The upper bunk has a sports themed comforter and a giant baseball pillow. There are glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling in a pattern that Sam doesn't miss as being real constellations. There is a model of the solar system in the corner that is remarkably accurate, including the asteroid belt.

"Did your kid make that?" she asks.

"I helped."

The dresser is covered in stickers: frogs, baseballs, and hearts as well as an occasional Simpsons character. There is a matching bookshelf and not one book where it ought to be if any sort of organizational scheme were applied to it. Toys are everywhere and four lego houses with battlements are on the floor.

"Are you sure that you want us in here?" Daniel asks in an awed tone of voice.

Jacks eyes go all soft, "I wish I could give a room like this to a little Daniel. The least I can do is let you borrow my son's."

"I was in foster care," Daniel explains to Sam like it's an apology.

They are all beat from the mission, and the loss, and before long Sam finds herself asleep in a frilly pink bed underneath Daniel.


	7. In Which Sam Has a Make-up Malfuntion

Sam wakes up in to the delightful smell of bacon. She crawls out of bed, and is slightly disappointed to see the bunk bed above her has already been vacated. She was sort of hoping it was Jack who was thoughtful enough to make her food.

She heads into the kitchen to see if she can help.

"Morning," Daniel says with the cheer only a morning person can use toward a person who is not a morning person. That sickening kind of cheer. "Hey, you've got something right there," he says lifting up his hand to wipe at something on her face. The little bit of make-up that was still covering it comes off on his finger, and he knows what he is looking at is a slightly fading black eye.

Daniel just stares at her clearly expecting her to bare her whole soul to him without delay.

"It's complicated," she offers.

"It's not complicated Sam. Someone hurt you."

"I hit back. I'm not saying there was anything good in this relationship. It just wasn't all his fault."

"Are you staying with Jack so that you get to feel safe?" Daniel asks having known the story about there being something wrong with her house was a lie ever since he first heard it.

"No, I moved here when I ended things with him. I didn't want to do the crazy anymore. He doesn't even know where I moved to."

"That's probably for the best."

"General Hammond basically thinks of me as a poor battered women, and I can't cope with more people looking at me and seeing that. Like I said it was a whole lot more complicated than that."

"You're secret is safe with me," he says doing a rather elaborate pinky swearing ritual like he is young enough to actually belong in the bed he spent the last night in.

Then Sam slips off to fix her make-up before Jack wakes up.


	8. In Which Sam Defends Herself

When Sam is threatened she defends herself. Sometimes this means that she beats up her fiancé, sometimes it means she fights a warlord.

"Sam," Jack nods to her in the infirmary and says no more until the nurse rushes on to do her next duty. Then he continues in a gruff voice, "Do you want me to stick around or not?"

She has a sinking feeling in her stomach as she thinks that he perhaps knows more than she thought he knew. Then she realizes he is just talking about what happened on the planet.

"I'm fine. I have been going to the doctor by myself for years," she assures him.

"I know," he sighs, "I just thought you might have to tell the doctor some details of the time when you were alone with the warlord."

She looks in his eyes, "I told you everything that he did to me."

"I'm here for emotional support, but if you'd rather tell me what happened without me there that's okay too."

"Jack. He made me kiss him. He whipped and slapped me. That's all. I promise."

She can tell the exact moment when he starts to believe her, because relief flows through his whole body.

She grabs onto his arm, and pulls him closer than they have ever been at work. She just looks into his eyes long and lovingly.

"I wish I could ask you to come over tonight," he says well aware that someone who has just survived a kidnapping shouldn't have to be alone, "but I have the kids this weekend."

"I'll be fine, sir," she says. She's started using the military term for him whenever they are both at work. It gives them professional distance that they need.

Usually the "sir" is enough for him to take a physical step away from her. Today he just pulls her into a hug which just shows how worried about her he has been. He knows what it is like to have your freedom taken from you. He knows what it is like to be afraid that someone is going to rape you. He knows what it is like to be whipped, and slapped, and injured on a military mission.

Over his back Sam sees a sight which is so surprising she doesn't even believe it until she has taken a second look.

It's her ex-fiancé.

-0-

Daniel is only half awake as he wonders out of his office to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Daniel is shocked to see another light on this late at night. He works all the time of course, but that's because he is trying to forget about his wife, and also because he does not really have any place to go.

"Okay. I work all the time, but I'm homeless, what's your excuse?" he jokes as he enters Sam's lab.

Sam practically hits the ceiling when she hears his words. Sam blushes, "I thought you were him."

Daniel's face goes all soft and worried, "That warlord can't hurt you anymore," he says.

"Not him," Sam explains, "Jonas is here."

"Jonas?" Daniel says his tired brain not keeping up with the conversation. Then the brain catches up, "Jonas Hanson? The new guy? **He** 's your ex?"

"Yeah. I didn't know he got reassigned here. I don't even know if he knows I'm at this base now. I know that he didn't see me when I saw him."

"If he has you this scared you have to tell the General. I am sure that he would reassign him," Daniel says.

"I've asked for enough special treatment already. It's fine. I'm sure he would never do anything in a public place."

"Which is why you are here instead of at home?" Daniel guesses.

Sam nods her head.

"Do you want me to come stay with you? I am homeless, and you need to get some sleep at some point."

"I only have one bed, and my whole house is still in boxes."

"I am really not picky," Daniel says.

"I'm actually seeing someone," Sam says looking away. She really doesn't want to see Daniel's face when she lets him down.

"What? When?" Daniel says sounding excited.

Sam flaps her mouth open and closed a couple of times. Then Daniel's sleep deprived brain catches up with what she meant by the statement, "Sam, I am married. This offer of sharing a bed with you was totally platonic. It is all about making you feel safe, and letting you get some sleep." He pushes his glasses farther up his noses, "I stayed in a lot of foster homes when I was younger. Some of them were excellent, and others were not. I have slept on the floor more than once."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sam says.

"We might end up sleeping next to each other on a mission now that the SGC did away with individual tents."

"Right, I'm a mission. Save the damsel in distress," Sam says with sarcasm.

"You are no damsel in distress. I'm the damsel. I need sleep. Save me," he demands with a fake swoon.

She giggles, "Okay."

"So tell me about this guy you are dating," Daniel prompts as Sam starts gathering her things together to take out of the room.

"Nope," she says.

"Is he fictional?"

"Nope."

"Can I meet him then?"

Sam ponders this questions for a little bit of time. Technically not since they had already met each other, "Nope."

Daniel smiles, "Any chance you tell your secrets in your sleep?"

"Nope."


	9. In Which Jack Meets Jonas

"Hey Sugar," Jonas says walking into Sam's lab with the swagger he used to use when he was sure that they are about to make love. "I figured you would call me when you realized I was in town."

"I thought moving out sent a pretty clear message," she says nervously standing up, and moving so she can keep the lab bench in between the two of them.

"It did. I just thought a little time would have settled down your pretty little head."

"Jonas, please leave," Sam says focusing hard on using her strong and confident voice.

"Come on Babe. I didn't really hurt you that bad did I?" he asks looking at her eye. He tries to reach across the lab bench to put his hand on her face, but she leans back to pull away from him. "Babe, we always fight, but that doesn't mean that we don't love each other. That we weren't meant for one another."

Sam tires to run around the bench, and get out the door, but he catches her by the waist. She tries to break way using his own momentum. He knows all of her moves. They have fought with each other so often that he can predict every single move that she is going to make. He grins at her, and starts to lift the knee.

She knows what comes next. She knows that that knee is going to touch her in a place she vowed Jonas would never get to feel again.

"Help!" she screams at the top of her lung.

The Airmen from the hall come running, and before they get in the door Jonas is already standing steps away with his arms up in the air.

"Ma'am?" one of the Airman asks uncertainly.

She glances at Jonas in silent accusation him. The Airman glances at him and Jonas skulks out of the room.

"Ma'am, would you like me to escort you somewhere?" the Airman asks.

"I'm okay," she says nervously. Why did Jonas always have to back her into a corner? Why did he have to force her hand? Would she ever be in control? Had she really believed that moving to a new place was going to change anything? "Can we not do any paperwork on this?" she requests. After all she is not clean in all of this. She is as guilty as he is.

She never should have dated him. She knew he wasn't exactly the kind of a guy who would take "no" for an answer.

-0-

She had sort of expected Daniel would find out about her calling for help. The man was plugged into all of the gossip of the base, and he was pretty sure that she was always in mortal danger.

She really didn't think the word would get back to Jack though. He was high enough in the chain of command and socially withdrawn enough that he was immune to most of the social gossip that ran around the base like wildfire.

He just stands there in the doorway of the lab as her cheeks go crimson.

"Did he hurt you?" Jack asks.

She shakes her head.

"Then he…" Jack lets the rest of the sentence hang in the air implied.

"Nothing happened. I was stupid to have freaked out like that," she says embarrassed.

"You are one of the least stupid people I know. He clearly did something that made you feel unsafe," he asks, "Should I talk to the General about getting him fired?"

"No," she says firmly. She wished she could explain it all, make him understand how much of it was her fault. Jonas didn't deserve to lose his job for what he did to her. She just didn't want him to keep being so close to her, to keep having so much power over her. She was just too ashamed of her part in it to make a clean breast of it all.

"Sam, please tell me what he did."

"It's complicated. I used to date him."

"Oh," jack says. He looks hurt. He doesn't have a right to be hurt just because he isn't the first man in her life, but she also doesn't blame him. What would happen if he found out how recently they dated? What would happen if he found out that she used to be engaged to him? "Still," Jack says.

"It's not his fault. I threatened to leave so many times. I can understand how he wouldn't believe when I really did."

"I assume you told him to back off before you screamed for help?" Jack asks. She nods, and he continues, "Well no one has a right to do anything after the no. It doesn't actually matter how many times you told him yes in the past. I don't think this is nearly as complicated as you are making it."

Those are safe words coming from a man.

"You don't deserve whatever he did to you," Jack says holding out his arms to her.

She falls into his arms sobbing.

"Oh Sammy," he whispers.

"I'm scared, Jack. I don't really deserve to be scared. I'm not all innocent. He used to hit me, but I used to hit him back. I just don't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to stay in this violent pattern forever."

"I'll take care of it," Jack says fiercely.

"No, Jack! You can't hurt him, and you can't fire him."

He pulls away just enough so she can see his face "I won't touch him."

She relaxes against his chest again.

"The kids went back to their mother's. Do you want to come over tonight?"

"Yes," she says, and he doesn't miss the relaxing of her muscles.

"You want me to stick around your lab today?"

"I'm fine Jack. I think this really was a little bit of an overreaction."

"Daniel then?" Jack suggests.

"I am seriously going to be fine."

-0-

Jonas walks around the corner and is stopped cold in his tracks by two large men forming a sort of wall across the whole hallway.

One of them is that scary alien dude and the other is the second in command of the base.

"I believe you have frightened a member of this base," the scary alien dude says in a creepily calm voice.

"Sam?" Jonas says relieved to hear the anger he feels toward her didn't' get into his voice. "I don't think you quite understand the situation. She is my gal."

Teal'c takes a step closer so Jonas's eyes almost come into contact with his shoulder. "I did not think the people on this planet could legally own to one another."

"Okay dude. What's up are you fucking her now or something?" At these words Teal'c uses an arm to fling Jonas into the wall.

"Teal'c," Jack reproaches softly.

"She never retrieved a promise from _me_ not to bodily harm him," Teal'c responds without taking his eyes off the victim against the wall.

Holy Shit, Jonas thinks. That was the two of them showing restraint.


	10. In Which Secrets are Reveled

Daniel decides he is going to be the one to break the news of Jonas's injury to Sam. She has been hiding in her office ever since she found out Jonas was in town, so there is a chance that she might not find out about it if no one told her. There was also a chance that she would overhear the base gossip, and he wasn't willing to risk it. He'd heard a few versions of the stories where Hanson was injured far more than he really was.

He brings her food, because bad news is always better with carbs.

As soon as Sam sees the pizza she bends over the trash can and loses her lunch.

He runs the pizza to a trash can in the hall, and comes back with a glass of water and a piece of gum which he begged off a passing scientist with such franticness that the poor man thought it was a matter of life or death.

She takes it gratefully, and he pulls the trash can into the hallway. Then he sits there in silence for a minute deciding whether to address the issue at hand or the reason he came to her lab, or both or neither.

He decides to pick the one that Sam will no doubt like the least first.

"Sam, feel free to punch me in the face if I'm wrong, but are you pregnant?"

"It's just a stomach bug," she mutters.

"Okay. Maybe. It's just the second time that you've thrown up since I've known you, and that hasn't been very long," Daniel says.

"So far 20% of people going through the gate the first time throw up…" Sam begins.

"Okay, but your food cravings, and the way your bra is two sizes too small, and the way your shoes don't fit…" Daniel says. The first-time Sam had changed in front of her team Daniel's eyes had settled on her boobs. She had assumed he was checking her out, but he was actually putting puzzle pieces together.

"Exactly how many girls have you gotten pregnant?" Sam teases him shocked at his knowledge. It worries her to think that this man might actually know more about pregnancy than she does, and she's actually pregnant.

"None. But I did hang out with some midwifes on a dig once. I'm right then?" he asks softly.

Sam nods.

"That's why you left Jonas, huh? You were in this dysfunctional violent thing, and you were fine with it when it was just you. But it wasn't just you anymore."

Daniel Jackson, a man who could look right into your soul with a single glance.

He pushes glasses up on his nose and waits. Even though he was quite able to do both parts of this conversation he apparently wants Sam to participate in it.

"It's stupid, because I don't even know if I'm keeping it. I just…didn't want him to hurt it. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to let this baby live but…"

"It's not stupid, Sam," Daniel says accepting in a moment the idea that she is debating abortion. It's something she's never even said to herself yet. She never thought anyone would accept her for that.

"I didn't want to tell anyone, because I can't really deal with all of this yet. I mean, I can barely deal with what my body is doing, and I really can't think about…"

"The human growing within you?" Daniel is unable to stop himself from asking. He looks down ashamed of himself. "Sorry…how far along are you?"

"Six weeks," Sam says.

"You've got time then, Sam."

She smiles at him, gratefully.

"Listen Sam, you know that your new team will be there for you no matter what, right?" Daniel says seriously.

Sam wonders how her new boyfriend would feel about this shocking news. She doubts he would be as accepting as Daniel is being. She feels like she should have told him right off, or at least when he reveled that he had kids.

"Daniel. I don't even know if going through the gate is okay in my condition. I haven't even decided if I'm having a baby, and in this time when I'm making up my mind I am doing all sorts of things to hurt it. I fought a war lord last week. I almost got strangled by a good guy who got taken over by a Goa'uld. I should…"

Daniel shakes his head, "Lots of Jaffa and human women go through the Stargate while pregnant. And have you gotten into less fights since you left him then before?"

Sam nods.

"It's not easy, sometimes. Doing the right thing. Sometimes you have to do the better thing instead of the best."

Her eyes well up at the mercy he is offering her.

"And by way of offering proof that your teammates would defend you…" he begins.

Her eyes go wide, "No, what did Jack do?"

"Teal'c actually," Daniel says.

She covers the mouth which is gapping open with a hand, "Is Jonas okay?"

"Yeah he's fine. He went the infirmary, but they sent him away pretty quick. Teal'c was not using his full force."

"I'm sure Teal'c somehow thinks he's defending my honor or something, but if he knew the whole story…" she objects.

"He knew enough of the story to know what he was doing," Daniel says, "I made sure of it."

"He shouldn't have done that. Jonas really did nothing wrong," she says.

"You might believe that Sam. But none of the rest of us do. You deserve to feel safe at work. If it takes Teal'c knocking him into a wall to make sure you feel safe than that is what it takes. We've got your six. Get used to it, girl."


	11. How Daniel Learns Who Sam is Dating

"Hey Carter," Jack says confused as to why she is in the locker room right now. He pulls a shirt out of his locker and puts it on. She's wearing a tank top again. It's not the shimmery dance number one that she was wearing when they first met, but it still does something to him. He wonders if she has any idea how much she affects him.

"I want you," she says.

Okay, so maybe the kids and Daniel and pretty much everything else on the planet has gotten in the way of their relationship getting carnal, but come on, they have only been dating for about two weeks. There is no reason for her to show up in the locker room and announce how badly she wants him. I mean, someone is bound to overhear. "Okay, later," he whispers.

"Now," she says pushing him up against the locker and kissing him. This kiss is way different form all of the other kisses he's had. The others were all full of emotions. This one is pure lust, pure desire, pure debauchery.

He shouldn't enjoy it as much as he does.

"Not like this," he says trying to push her away. She pulls away, he thinks she must have realized that they are in a public place. Any moment now her reason will be restored and she will feel all embarrassed. All bashful.

Instead, she slams him down on the bench.

He likes this violent of the action, and he never thought he had that particular kink inside of him. Yet his body is reacting, reaching for her. She is kissing him so hard his lips hurt, and he didn't even know such a thing was possible.

Then his mind reminds him where they are. It prods him with the knowledge that something must be wrong. She doesn't want anyone to know that they are dating. She can't possibly want to make-out in a public place. She hasn't even told Daniel they are together, and the two of them seem to be joined at the hip.

He's not jealous of their friendship though, he tells himself. She's allowed to have friends. She's allowed to have friends even though she spends way more time with them than she does with him.

He can't help but wonder if she would still be with him if she had met Daniel before she met him.

"Sam, this isn't right. Something is wrong," he says.

She pulls away, and her eyes are still unnaturally frenzied. Whatever alien influence or drug that is making her do this is still acting on her, but under all of that there is still a kind of grim sadness. The real her, under all of the madness, is actually getting hurt by him pulling away.

"Don't you want me?" she desperately pleas.

"Of course I do. When it's right," he promises her.

She stares at him with stricken scared little eyes that nearly break his heart, but she doesn't move. She's not getting off him, and the lust in his body is getting harder and harder to refuse.

He gently rolls her onto the floor, landing on top of her with a thud as their bodies fall of the bench. She grins at him, and whatever am remained in her eyes disappears. There is nothing there now apart from pure lust, and she is looking at him in a way that makes him want to comply with all her requests.

Instead, he uses every ounce of self-restraint he has to get up off the floor, and pull her to her feet. "I think it is time that you saw a doctor, Doctor," he quips.

-0-

"What happened to you?" Daniel asks Jack.

"I got into a bit of a thing with Sam," Jack admits. He would really rather not think about what happened between them. There are more emotions going through his body right now that he has had in a long time. He's still too full of emotions. He tried to shut himself off to all of those emotions, and he does not like to feel how ineffective he was at it.

"Is she okay?" Daniel asks in concern pushing his glasses up his nose.

"What do you mean is she okay?" Jack asks taking a step forward in an effort to intimidate the man. All of the mysteries of the macho world are lost to Daniel and so he doesn't realize that right now he's under a sort of vague threat.

"I mean, is she okay? She's my friend. I care about her."

"She's not yours to care about," Jack says with unmistakable danger in her eyes.

"Look, you don't get to get all possessive of her. She's dating someone," Daniel says.

The drugs don't hide the hurt in Jack's eyes. He thought he would have known if things had gone that far south between them. They spent almost all of their time together, granted, usually they were spending time together at work, or time together with Daniel. Still, when would she have time to date someone else, and why wouldn't she have told him?

The wounded look in Jack's eyes make the puzzle pieces come together for Daniel. "You, she's dating you! I mean, she never said who, and I just assumed…" Jack's panic over the idea of Sam dating someone else doesn't really allow what Daniel is saying to reach his brain, but his angry jealous brain does somehow manage to process the next words, "She only told me she was dating someone, because she thought I was hitting on her, and…"

Daniel is prevented from finishing his sentence by Jack's fist making contact with his face. Some SF's come and break up the fight before Jack is able to do too much damage to Daniel.


	12. Concerning Bubbles and Pop Guns

"How are you feeling?" Sam has to blink four times before she can assign a face to the voice which woke her up.

It's Daniel's.

Daniel's swollen face.

"What happened?" she asks him confused.

"You got stabbed," he responds.

"What?" she says her brain trying to figure out how her getting stabbed resulted in Daniel's face being all swollen.

"You got that virus which made most people go all angry and violent, but which just made you want to have public sex with your boyfriend."

"What?" she exclaims again. Daniel doesn't know about her and Jack, so he must mean someone else. She hadn't lost her mind and ended up back with Jonas has she? That would definitely hurt her pleas to him to leave her alone.

"I'm not a psychologist, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say this all could have been avoided if you had been more honest about your feelings for Jack."

"You know?" she says.

"Yep, and I could have avoided a fist fight if you'd told me sooner," Daniel adds.

She looks at his face again, with fresh eyes, knowing that that black eye was all her fault. "I get everyone hurt."

"No, you don't," Daniel says grieving for how little she thinks of herself, "It never would have happened if we weren't all infested with this virus. I just don't get why you wanted this romance to be a big secret. I mean, I've been staying at the house with the two of you guys for days! You could have just told me that I was killing the mood."

"You weren't."

"Oh come on Sam. No one wants another guy crashing their time with their boyfriend," Daniel objects.

Sam looks completely ashamed of herself.

"Okay, unless there is some reason you actually do want a buffer," he says softly.

"I'm just not ready yet. I mean, things with Jonas went really, really bad. I don't want to jump right into something right away."

"You know that you could tell him that," Daniel suggests.

"Or I could hide behind my friend until I'm emotionally ready to deal with it," she says hopefully.

"Yeah, Sam, you can do that," he says, "We are going to need a secret word for when you want me to leave you alone."

"How about we go with the super subtle, "Don't you have some work on base?'"

Daniel giggles. "Yeah, that will do it."

-0-

Sam still hasn't gone to her own house. She's lived in Colorado Springs for the better part of a month now, but every night she just hops into Jack's truck with her boyfriend and her best friend.

Once in a while, she heads home, but always returns with another box of clothes.

So when the door rings, she really doesn't have any qualms about answering it. That is until she sees a distressed women with two kids there.

"Jack!" Sam calls knowing that this might be his ex-wife.

"Kids, can you go to your room while?" Sara directs her youngsters.

They stare at Sam was they walk past. The little girl with admiration, and the little boy with pure hatred.

Jack walks past his kids in the hallway, and quickens his step to the door. "Sara what's wrong?"

"Dad had a stroke. I'm running up to the hospital see him. I know it's not your time with the kids, but…"

"No problem," Jack says, "I've got them for as long as you need me to. I'm so sorry, Sara. I hope Mike is going to be fine."

"Thanks," she says. "I wrote down all the stuff I knew you would forget like when Charlie's school starts and the foods that make Ava stay up all night."

"I can take care of them Sara," he says.

She nods with a thin smile. "You've got everything secured?"

"Yes, Sara. My house is always ready for the kids."

"Okay," Sara says. She starts to walk away, but turns back, "You're going to double check?"

"Of course," Jack practically whispers.

"I'll go home," Sam says quickly as soon as the door is closed.

"Hey, the kids met you. The ship has sailed. Come on," Jack says with the puffed-up voice of a man eager to show off his kids to someone.

"Hi," the little girl said reaching up her arms. Sam picks her up without even thinking, and the little thing just melts into her arms.

"Baby girl. Does your arm hurt?" Jack asks rubbing her back.

She nods her head.

Jack reaches into the bag his son brought. "Did your mom put in your meds?"

"She just takes over the counter stuff now," the boy sneers.

"I know, but I don't have any of the stuff for kids here," Jack replies.

"You have kids. You should have medicine for them," the boy declares.

"You know what? It's fine. I'll go get some medicine for Ava," Jack says calmly.

"And leave us with your girlfriend?" Carlie says narrowing her eyes at her.

"Her name is Sam, Charlie," Jack says.

"I'll go for the medicine," Daniel offers walking into the room.

"Kids, this is Daniel," Jack says, "Thanks," he tells the other man.

"I'm glad you meet you guys. Your dad told me how amazing you are," Daniel says grinning at the kids. "Anything else you kiddos need?"

"Bubbles?" Ava says with a face full of hope.

"Don't be such a kid," Charlie says.

"Ah, well, she is a kid, Charlie, and so are you," Jack says with a grin.

"Fine. If you really want me to pick a toy. I pick a," the kid grins, "Pop gun."

Silence, and the little girl clings more tightly and desperately to Sam.

"I'll get you a box of crayons, kid," Daniel says.

"Great," Charlie says climbing up on his bunk bed, and starring at the ceiling.

"Did Mama do your arm games with you already?" Jack asks.

Sam feels a head shaking against her shoulder.

"Come to Daddy, little one," he says holding out his hands. The little girl comes to him, and he carries her off to the living room. Sam stays behind in the room with the boy for a few seconds before his silence causes her to follow Jack and his daughter.

-0-

Jack clearly did some sort of physical therapy with his little girl in the living room. It seems to cause her a great deal of pain, which isn't exactly relieved by the pain medicine that Daniel brings her. She doesn't stop clinging to Sam. She whimpers and complains whenever Sam tries to leave her. Sam falls asleep before the kid does.

When the kids first arrived, Daniel figured he and Sam would go to her house, but when Sam falls asleep he decides to stay. Not that the couple really needs a buffer between them when there are little kids around.

He's glad for the decision when he wakes up to the sound of her throwing up. He goes into the bathroom to hold her hair.

When she's done she leans against the wall of the bathroom. Daniel leans against the other.

"What happened to that girl?" Sam asks.

"I think maybe you should be talking to Jack."

"Fair point. I think I should share some things with him," Sam says.

"Like the reason you just threw up?" Daniel asks.

"I want to keep it," she whispers.

"That little girl wiggled her way into your heart didn't she?" Daniel smiles.

"Yeah. Does she have a…birth defect?" Sam asks again.

"No," Daniel sighs. "Her brother accidently shot her. The pain comes from the fact that there is still a bullet in her arm. It was Jack's gun, and he thinks it was his fault. Every pain that little girl has…Jack blames himself."

"Wow," Sam says glumly, "And so does the boy."

"What? No. " Daniel says in shock, "Charlie blames Jack too. He's pissed at him. He wants to hurt him. I mean, that pop gun comment today?"

"I think it's a cover," she says.

"You might be right," Daniel observes, "So it's okay to say congrats on the baby now?"

"Yeah," she says grabbing Daniel's hand to rest it on her belly.

A shadow falls over Sam's lap. She looks up to see Jack.

"What's happening?" Jack asks swallowing. He has thought for a while that there was something going on between his girlfriend and his best friend. He doesn't know exactly what it is, something secret.

"Time for that conversation, eh?" Daniel says standing up, and walking out of the room.

"You know what, Sam? Let's skip the conversation," Jack says going back to his own room.

"What if I don't want to?" she asks following him in. It's the first time she's been in his bedroom. She already feels at home here.

"Sam. I get it. I should have been upfront with this, and we wouldn't have had to waste all of our time pretending to be together. You can't love a guy who almost killed his own kid."

"Jack, you didn't…" he begins.

"Daniel didn't tell you?"

"He did Jack. It was an accident, and I'm not trying to break up with you. I'm trying to tell you I have a secret as big as yours. I'm pregnant."

"What? We haven't even had sex," then he snorts at himself, "That was stupid of me to say. You lived before you met me. It's Jonas's kid."

"I get that you might not want to date a women who lied about being pregnant…" she says.

"Let's be real. I don't deserve my own kids. I certainly don't deserve to be involved with someone else's kids," Jack says.

"I trust you," she says.

"You shouldn't."

"I think your kid needs someone to show him how to forgive himself," she observes.


	13. Concerning The Baby Daddy

"What are you doing here?" Jack asks looking at Sam on the other side of the briefing table from him.

"Isn't this the briefing for SG-1?" she asks with mock surprise.

"Yes, but you're not going through the gate anymore," he says.

"Nothing has changed," she says cryptically.

"I don't know what kind of a conversation you too think you are having, but I am in charge of the team assignment for missions," Hammond says with his booming voice.

"Do the military rules on pregnancy apply to civilians?" Jack asks leveling eyes at the General.

"Samantha?" the General asks.

She holds the sobs in as best she can. She can't believe Jack would do this to her.

"I think a trip the infirmary is in order," the General says softly.

"I'm not sick, sir," she responds firmly, but in a whisper.

"My order stands," he says.

"Sir, I am very grateful for you giving me a job. I regret that this…revelation has jeopardized it."

"Sam," the voice says a few times before she looks him in the eye, "I'm not firing you. There are plenty of jobs around the place that someone as brilliant as you could do. You did not get this job out of pity, and I do not think the less of you for this. I'm just going to protect that little child from the nasty aliens, because I could use another grandbaby."

"Thank you. I'm sorry for making a scene," she says softly.

Then General's professional façade has broken down enough that he has no problem giving her a big hug before she leaves the room. He casts a glare at Jack, "That could have been handled better."

"I didn't think she was going to go through the gate. Not now that she knew about it," Jack defends himself, "I was taken by surprise. I wasn't ready. I didn't meant it to go down like that."

"She knew about the baby since before she moved here," Daniel says in almost a whisper causing all three of the other men on the room to stare at him. "Protecting that little one was actually why she moved here."

"So in her mind we just called her a bad mother. Damn it!" Jack curses in an almost whisper. "I'm the last one on the planet to be questioning someone's parenting skills."

Teal'c stands, and looks at Hammond. Hammond gives him a nod, and he leaves.

-0-

It was Teal'c who came to her. Of course, it was him. She opens her mouth to speak to him, but she doesn't need to. This is Teal'c. He is a man of action, a man of presence. He exists, and that is enough.

Teal'c holds out his arms, and Sam falls into them. Her face is flat against the plane of his chest.

"Your child made a good choice in you as a mother," he says.

"Choice?" she asks.

"It is an old myth from my country, but when I first came to the planet I also thought the Ta'uri was a myth."

"So in this myth the children pick the parents they like the most?" Sam asks.

"No, the parents who will make them the best version of themselves. They are unformed clay in the place above. They choice their molders, and your child made a wise choice indeed."

"That's really pretty, Teal'c, thanks."

-0-

"I'm sorry," Jack says walking into Sam's darkened lab after the mission.

"It's okay. You had a right to tell him," she says.

"I didn't. My kid will spend the rest of her life with a bullet in her arm. I don't get to tell you how to take care of your kid."

"Jonas and I were violent with each other. I thought whatever risks I was doing it was better than that," she says.

The new revelation pains Jack more. He knew that she was scared of Jonas. He didn't realize that she actually believe gate travel was safe compared to being in a house with him. He holds a Bible toward her. "It's Jonas's," he says.

"Jonas and I don't really talk," she says confused to why he is giving her that. He would rather throw the book away then talk to him to give it back.

Jack looks down, "Carter. He's not going to have that back."

"He's still on the planet? If he won't come home they'll keep going after him…" she drifts off when she realizes.

"I'm sorry, Carter," he says again.

"How?" she asks.

"He fell into a wormhole. I practically dared us to kill him. We couldn't though. You know, we couldn't leave the kid fatherless on purpose."

She hadn't even though about what Jonas's death meant for her baby yet. She was still dealing with what it meant for her.

"Do you want a hug, or maybe want to sit down?" he asks.

She shakes her head.

"Do you want me to get Daniel for you?" he asks feeling inadequate.

"I want to stop using a platonic relationship to fill the gaps I'm too scared to fill in with this one. I'm scared of us because of Jonas and me. I think…I think it will take some time to wade through this. But I want to wait through this with you, if you're still in this."

"I'm still in this," he assures her.


	14. Concerning Sara and Charlie

"What are you looking at?" Sam asks Jack as he stares at a photograph in his locker.

"My family," he says in a strange dazed out voice. Sam sees the picture over his shoulder. It's not just his kids, but also his ex-wife. She understands, this woman was a part of his life for a really long time. She shouldn't let this hurt her.

"Okay, I'll leave you alone," she says walking quickly out of the room before she can start crying.

"Hey, Sam, are you okay?" Daniel says grabbing onto her elbow as she starts to leave the room.

She flashes him a huge smile, "Fine."

Jack leaves the room pushing past the two of them. Daniel looks at Sam knowingly, "Come on," he tells her as he ushers her over to his office.

-0-

"What is happening with Jack?" Daniel asks.

"It's nothing. I'm being a jealous idiot. He was looking at pictures of Sara."

"Sam, it doesn't mean anything. They are over. They are civil to each other, because of the kids. You mean everything to him."

"On the day that I met him they he was going out drinking to get over the fact that his divorce had just been finalized."

"Sam," Daniel says.

"I am being so stupid! I am going to have a baby Daniel. A baby! And here I am crying over some ill-fated relationship with some guy who belongs with his ex-wife."

"I don't know that he belongs with his ex-wife," Daniel says slowly.

"He has children, Daniel. They deserve their Dad!"

"And they have him. They have him as much as Sara allows him to. There is no way she's going to take Jack back. It was a big struggled to get her to agree to let Jack take the kids sometimes. If Ava hadn't plead his case for him all the time it might not turn out so well for him."

Sam looks down.

"Maybe you feel the same way about it that Sara does. Sam, if you want to get your kid away from him…"

"No," she says firmly.

"Okay, well, Jack is in this," Daniel says.

Sam looks at him in surprise, "You and Jack have talked about me?"

"Of course not," Daniel says with a coy smile.

Sam grins, "So, he's really serious about this?"

"He thinks he's unworthy Sam. Unworthy of you. Unworthy of his kids. His team. His friends," Daniel pauses before he gets to the last one, "His life."

These last words cause a sharp intake of breath from Sam. "I'll try to reassure him."

-0-

Sam is working in her lab with Daniel walks in. "Sam, Jack is here. Well, another Jack is here," he says softly.

"What?" she asks turning toward him, and expecting to see Jack in tow. She doesn't.

"I mean, another person came through the gate. It was Jack. But he was already here."

"You're sure this one is him?"

"DNA tests confirm."

"Then something else is at Jack ex's house," Sam says with terror in her voice.

"With his kids," Daniel says in terror.

-0-

When Sam arrives at Jack's house the kids are with their grandfather. Sara has taken Jack, or at least the thing that Sara thinks is Jack to the hospital. Ava reaches out her hands, and Sam takes her from her grandfather without even thinking about it.

"You must be the hot young blond my daughter told me about," Michael says.

Sam isn't exactly sure how to respond to that.

The older man smiles, "How is that son-in-law of mine doing?"

"Right now? I'm not sure," Sam says nervously bouncing Ava as the toddler starts to get antsy.

"I mean in general. Is that boy happy? He deserves to be happy, and he hasn't been for a long time."

Sam smiles insecurely, "I think so."

"If he's got you, and he's not happy he's a fool," Michael announces.

Ava taps on her shoulder, and pulls Sam's ear toward her, "Daddy loves you," she announces.

Sam blushes, and puts the little girl down, "I should probably get to the hospital to see what is happening. Is Charlie here? I should probably say goodbye to him."

Michael lets out a huge sigh, "That man of yours had some sort of talk, and now Charlie won't come out of his room."

Shit. What the hell did fake Jack do the kid?

"I'll just go…see him," she says going up the stairs. She's never been in this house before, but there is only one door closed, so she knocks on it.

"I'm not coming out Gramp."

"It's Samantha."

The door opens. "Did he tell me what you told me?"

"No," Sam says softly.

"It was a lie though."

"I guess I won't know unless you tell me what he said," she prompts hopefully.

"He said it wasn't my fault," Charlie says looking at his shoes.

"That's definitely the truth," Sam prompts.

"I almost killed my sister."

"Accidently, and almost. Those are the only parts that matter in that."

"What if she would have died?" he whispers.

"Then we would have been really sad, for a really long time, but we still would have loved you every bit as much," she says.

"Dad blames himself," Charlie says.

"And he shouldn't do that either," Sam observes.

"Will you hold me like you do Ava?" Charlie asks in a whisper so quiet that Sam almost has to ask him to say it again.

"Of course, baby," she says sitting down on the edge of his bed.

She starts to sing an obscure verse of "Twinkle, Twinkle" as she rocks him. Charlie begins crying, and looks embarrassed.

"You know your Daddy cries sometimes?" she asks him casually, as if she never even saw that he was crying.

"Really?"

"Sure. Everyone cries when someone they love gets hurt."

Charlie nods, and snuggles against her shoulder. A huge part of Sam still wants to rush to the hospital, but she knows that what she is doing right here, right now is more important.

-0-

Samantha is going to make an amazing mother, Jack thinks to himself. His kid is crying, and she's rocking him. Then, she tells him something, and he giggles. Giggles with tears running down his face.

"Charlie?" Jack says.

"Daddy," he says looking at the man with a question in his face. He clearly needs assurance that what he is doing is not wrong.

He gives the boy a wide grin which he hopes is a permission slip. He sits down on the bed by the kid's head, and he runs a hand over his son's hair.

"Are you sure about what you told me earlier?" Charlie asks.

Jack looks questionably at Sam hoping that the alien didn't hurt his kid, "I don't know, Sam, am I?"

"I think you're pretty sure the accident wasn't Charlie's fault, yeah," she says softly.

Jack's heart is in his throat. Sam had told him months ago that he should tell his kid that, but it wasn't him that finally did it. It took a damn rock to parent his kid properly.

"I am a hundred percent sure," Jack says.

"Can I come home with you tonight?" Charlie asks with wet eyes looking up at his father with hope.

"I'll ask your Mama, honey," he says.

"I promise I'll be good," Charlie says in a way that nearly breaks Jack's heart.

"Charlie, you do know that my mother and I didn't get divorced because of you."

"Because of what I did," Charlie says.

Tears comes to Jack's eyes, mostly because there is a grain of truth to his story. "No, Charlie. Your mother and I broke up because Daddy didn't know how to be a good husband and Daddy. When bad things happens he just pulls away and stops talking. He doesn't talk about how he feels and he doesn't cry."

"I do that too," Charlie says.

Shit. "Baby your mother and I are going to love you no matter what. People just don't stop loving their kids the way they do a husband or wife…it's just different."

"Why?"

"I don't really know kid. But I do know that I will love you forever and for always. Daddy was never mad at you, and I promise I didn't leave because of you."

-0-

"I should go home, Jack," Sam whispers later that night. Charlie has finally fallen asleep on the bunk his room.

"You could have my bed, and I could sleep on the couch," Jack offers.

"It's fine, Jack. It's long past time that I should be going home to my own house, and my own bed."

"I just feel bad that my kids keep chasing you away," he says.

Her heart is full, "Jack, I really like your kids. I'm not leaving to avoid them. I just don't want to be an invader."

"You're not," he says.

"Jack, I sleep here way more than I do at home."

"Move in then," he says.

"Move in? We've only known each other for two months!" Sam explains.

"You're right, it's crazy," Jack says glancing at his feet.

"Jack," she says softly. When he doesn't look at her she repeats the name again, "Jack, I'm not ready to share a bed with you yet."

"I told you that I'd be on the couch," he says confused.

"I know, but if we're living together…" she says.

"Carter, you and I have both gotten out of long term things. Both of them involve a great deal of pain. I'm not about to rush the physical thing. I would like to have you in the house when I wake up…when I go to bed."

"Well, if I'm here all the time anyway, I guess I might as well have my stuff here, most of it is anyway," she smiles.

"So you are saying, yes?"

"Yes."

The screaming of a child brings them into the bedroom to help Charlie out of his nightmare.


	15. In Which Jack Dies

It's funny the parts of the Black Ops training that stay active when Jack is asleep. The part of his brain that senses other people is alert, the part that recognizes them is not so much. So when Sam stands in his doorway he leaps to attention.

"Sorry," she says.

"No, I'm sorry," Jack says, "What do you need?"

"You died today," she reminds him.

He glances at his watch, "Actually, I think it was yesterday. It's a bit confusing with the time change between planets, and the length of alien days."

"You died," Sam repeats.

"It was temporary," he says standing up before her.

"What if next time it isn't?" she asks.

"Carter, you were doing this too, not long ago. The fact that it was dangerous must have occurred to you."

"I know but…" she can't quite put the rest into words.

"It's harder to watch someone you care about in danger than be in it yourself."

She nods.

"Congrats Sammy, you know understand the U.S. military," he quips. Then he remembers that her dad is in the Air Force, "I guess you've known about this for a long time."

"Yes," she says softly.

"Come'er," she says holding out her hands to her. He melts into him.

"Can I stay here tonight?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'll take the kid's room for a day."

"No," she says. "Stay with me," he hand has moved to his chest where she is quite clearly feeling his heart beat.

"Okay," he says.

"Just…sleep?" she asks insecurely.

He smiles at her gently, and nods.

Then they lay in bed next to each other, only their shoulders touching, and two of her fingers resting upon the pulse point of his wrist.

He cares for her, a lot, he might even love her. How could someone do this to someone they loved? Make them suffer like this?

He thinks about Sara. It was going wrong with them long before the accident. His marriage was in part destroyed by his career choice. Not just military, but the most dangerous least predictable job in the military.

He wouldn't but her through that. He just had to figure out a way to make her leave.

-0-

"Daniel, you should come over tonight," Sam says the second she enters his lab. He doesn't miss the pleading in her voice.

He pushes the glasses up, "Trouble in paradise?" He hasn't been at Jack's house much since he got his own place. Sam had never used the magic phrase to tell him to leave, but they looked fine, and honestly he didn't really like playing chaperone to adults.

"I'm just a little…lonely I guess."

"I miss you too," Daniel says with a smile.

"Right, well, I don't just miss you. I miss…"

Daniel realizes his first guess was right after all, "You meant your house? Or Jack's?"

"Well, Jack's. I'm sort of in the process of moving in. Or I was, but now…"

Daniel puts down the artifact that had been in his hand the whole time. "What's changed your mind?"

"It's not really my mind."

"Oh I'll murder him for screwing this up, what did he do?" Daniel asks.

Sam shrugs. "He just sort of…stopped coming home."

"What?" Daniel asks with his mouth agape for a long time, "Jack is cheating on you?"

"No. I don't think so. I mean, he comes home. It's just really late. And he never talks."

"He talked before?" Daniel says with a surprised eye brow raise. Of course Daniel would be the first one to pick up Teal'c's mannerisms. It's a chameleon like survival mechanism he no doubt picked up during his time in foster care.

"Not about anything important. But yeah, he's always talking. He talks about hockey, or the Simpsons, or the neighbor's lawn ordainment or something."

"He really hates those pink flamingos doesn't he?" Daniel observes.

"He used to spend a lot of time planning missions to destroy them that they had no intention of following through with."

"But not anymore?"

"No, now he just slips into bed in the middle of the night, and slips out before I get up."

"Wait, you're sharing a bed now?" Daniel asks, "Way to bury the lead girl!"

Sam blushes. "It's not like that." But maybe it is. Maybe that's all of it. Maybe _he_ wasn't ready for her to go into his bed even if she was.

"Listen Sam, I don't quite know what is going on. I do know that Jack has pushed people away move before. Generally when he thinks people are better off without him.

"Oh," Sam says sitting down hard in the chair.

"Oh no," Daniel says.

"I might have…expressed concern about his death last week."

"Egad, you were human!" Daniel teases. "Seriously though. Don't let him make this choice for you."


	16. In Which Sam Refuses to Leave

It must have worked. Her car isn't in his driveway when he returns home. He figures he must have finally scared her off.

Good. Now she can find a good guy that is going to be able to make her happy.

He just hopes to God she doesn't pick Daniel.

He tries to hum, because he got his way. His humming just turns into a groan somehow.

"It's better," he insists himself aloud. Without her eyes around he feels no problem pulling off his BDU's on the way to the bedroom. He's down to boxer shorts when she comes out of the kid's room.

"Carter," he says causally.

"Sir," she replies coyly enjoying the contrast between the military term and his bare chest.

"I didn't realize you were here."

"I do live here right?" she asks him with a challenge in his voice.

"Yeah. I'll go…get dressed," he says slowly disappearing into his bedroom.

-0-

She figures that he's going to come out of the bedroom when he's changed into his civilian clothes, he's wrong. He just hides in his bedroom for the rest of the night.

She's still not leaving.

-0-

Damn it. He grumbled. She wasn't going to leave. He'd already gone most of a day without food. Then, well then Jack O'Neill did something he wasn't exactly proud of. He snuck out of the window in his own house, walked to the gas station down the street, and then bought enough candy, soda, chips, and hot dogs to keep him supplied until his next mission.

-0-

She could hear the crunch of chips through his door.

She's either going to marry him or kill him.

Probably both.

-0-

He spent all weekend in his bedroom. This is disturbing to Sam for a number of reasons. Not the least of which the fact that he does not have a bathroom in there.

Now he was late for work.

"Jack?" she asks.

He doesn't answer, and she knows the doors have no locks. So she just opens the door and heads in.

His room is empty. The window is open.

"Kill him. For sure," she mutters under her breath.

Then she sees them. Clearly the empty pop bottle were his solution to no bathroom problem.

Well, if he wanted to play it that way, then she would just get her revenge.

-0-

Jack crawls back in the window after a really long day at work, and he collapses on the bed without even looking.

A sharp yell breaks out when he misses the bed.

Nope, he didn't just miss the bed. The bed is gone. Everything is gone. Everything including his bottles of piss.

He's really hoping that she knew what those were, and didn't try to drink them. What? It's not like he is denying the fact that he still cares about her.

He's also finding himself really wishing that he had just peed out the window like he first thought of. He's really glad he went back to the gas station for other bathroom needs.

Even if the gas station attendant now thinks he is crazy.

She's standing at the door laughing at him.

He puts his hands behind his head in a posture of relaxing, "Need something Carter?"

"No, I'm good," she says holding up his wallet.

Shit.

"And I talked to Gus."

"Gus?" he fakes ignorance at the gas station attendance name.

"The Loaf and Jug with neither be accepting your loafs or giving you jugs anymore," she says with a grin.

"Still fine," he says.

"Really, Jack. You still don't want think it would be easier to just have a conversation?"

"Nope," he says.

She walks over to him, and he just barely resists the urge to look under the flowery skirt when she hovers right over him. She lays down next to him, cuddling under his armpit. He sighs as a cover when he realizes how much he missed her smell.

"I love you," she says. It's not exactly news to him, but they have never said it before. He responds only with a grunt. "You love me too."

"That's why I think we should break up," he says.

"Jack. I would rather love you for a day and have my heart broken, then love someone else for a whole lifetime. I'm not going to let you protect me right out of your life."

"Carter, I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you."

"You hurt me when you started hiding."

"Right," he says a little surprised by the fact he never quite thought of it this way before, even though it was super obvious, "But it's going to be worse later on."

"You are assuming that I could love you more than I already to."

He pauses for a good long time. Then he wraps his arm around her. "Sorry Carter."

She puts her head on his chest and breaths him in.

"Where did you put my bed?" he asks.

She giggles.

"Carter?" he asks again.

"Whose bed is it?" she asks with raised eyebrows.

"Our bed. Where is _our_ bed?"

"Living room," she admits.

"Hum," he says.

"You want to leave it there for a bit?" she giggles.

"Might be interesting," he admits.

-0-

Sam grabs Jack's hand as they watch TV on the bed in the living room. Then Jack reaches under the mattress and pulls out a bag of chips. He places it on his lap pretending to be oblivious to the glare that Sam is treating him with. Then he reaches in.

"If you put that in your mouth, I am going to kill you."

He grins at her, and then flips the chip into his mouth "I believe the whole fight started because you _didn't_ want me to die."

She flings the bag across the room and straddles him. She intended it to be a wrestling move, but now that she was here…Well, the choices where always either to love him or kill him weren't they?

She kisses the tip of his nose, sucks on his earlobe, and then graces the muscle responsible for the smirk she loves to hate with a kiss.

"Oh Dorothy, you are just not capable of cold blooded murder."

"Lucky for you," she retorts.

"Oh, I am lucky in oh so many ways," he says capturing her in a kiss that lets her know how much he missed her during the week long freeze out.

As things progress Sam can't help but enjoy the fact that their first time together is going to have such a strange back story.

Then…

"Jack, the baby just moved," she says pulling his hand onto her stomach.

He doesn't tell her that he can't feel it yet, mostly because he doesn't trust his voice not to sound disappointed. Come on, this kid isn't even born yet, and it's already ruining his sex life.


	17. In Which Sam Lights the Fire

Why on Earth is Jack ringing his own doorbell? Sam asks herself. She gets up to answer it none the less. It's Daniel and Teal'c.

"You've got to be kidding me. I thought Jack was done avoiding me," she teases.

Daniel looks at his feet, and her heart jumps into her mouth.

"Is he okay?" she asks.

"He contracted a disease," Teal'c replies.

"He's aging rapidly," Daniel says.

Relief bubbles up in the form of a giggle.

Daniel's face is more serious than Jack's.

"This isn't some joke? He didn't set you up for this?" she says nervously.

"I wish," Daniel says. Sam takes a step back to invite them in. She figures this conversation is something that is classified enough that it should be taking place inside of her house.

"How exactly did he get this disease that made him so old?" she asks.

Even Teal'c avoids her eye.

"Fine. How fast is he aging?" she asks.

"About a year a day," Daniel says patiently.

"Shit," Sam says closing her eyes. It's the first time since she met Jack that she wished he was younger.

"I should go in and save him. Or see him, or something," she says.

"He's off world," Daniel says.

"Right," Sam says trying to keep the tears back.

"Major Carter, there is a bed in your living room," Teal'c informs her.

Daniel glances over Teal'c's shoulder, clearly not believing the Jaffa. "There is Sam," he says in awe, "There is a bed in the middle of your living room."

"Is this a Tau'ri tradition?" Teal'c asks.

"It's really not," Daniel answers.

"We had a fight," Sam says.

"A fight?' Daniel sputters, "A fight that ended with a bed in the living room?"

"I believe it is more likely that the bed in the living room is what ended the fight," Teal'c says stoically.

Daniel looks at him in shock.

"He's not wrong," Sam quips.

Daniel stares at her open mouthed.

-0-

"Daniel, can you come over?" Sam asks one the phone.

"Your house or Jack's?" is the only question he asks.

"I…sold my house," she says.

"Okay, I'll be there soon."

-0-

An unbelievably polluted looking plume of smoke is rising from something that looks like it really could be Sam's backyard. It's not thought, right? There is no way she would do that. He is about to knock on the door when he hears Sam cuss, in Abydonian (where the hell did she learn that?). He goes into the backyard.

"You set the bed on fire," he observes trying really hard not to grin.

"Am I going to go to prison?" she asks panicked. She's trying to put it out with the garden hose. It's still smoldering.

"You'll be fine. Why did you set the bed one fire?"

"Kynthia is really pretty," Sam states.

"You watched my video then," Daniel says.

"Maybe if I'd had sex with him he wouldn't have had sex with her," Sam says.

Daniel laughs is such a genuine way she feels silly for thinking that, "So you let the bed on fire," Daniel says now surveying the scene with more seriousness.

"I read somewhere that Mary Todd Lincoln did it."

"Well, no she actually didn't."

"Oh. I just thought…she was bipolar."

"Actually that was sexist propaganda against a woman who sort of invented the modern first ladyhood."

"Okay, so she was way too sane to pull something like this."

"Sam, she gave him cake," Daniel says.

"Mary Todd gave who cake?"

"Kynthia gave Jack cake. We weren't sure what was in it on the planet. Janet analyzed it, and it turns out he was drugged."

Shit. She was angry at someone for being raped. Maybe that's not quite what Daniel meant, "Are we talking shots of tequila or a roofie?"

"Somewhere in between," Daniel says.

"Daniel, can we please not tell Jack about this," she says looking at the bed.

"I think he'll notice when he comes home to a room without bed."

"Don't count on it," Sam giggles remembering Jack falling on the floor.

"We're recording messages for him tomorrow. We're not…exactly allowed to go back to that planet."

She has to record a goodbye message to him? She feels like she hasn't really gotten to say hello yet.

"This would have made more sense if he actually slept with her in the bed," Daniel says.

"That was a thought that crossed my mind about ten minutes ago when I was still worried the tree was going to catch on fine," Sam says.

"You sleep in that bed," Daniel points out.

"You're not wrong."

"You want to stay at my house tonight?" Daniel asks her.

"I really didn't think this one through," Sam bemoans.

Daniel grabs her by the waist to give her a side hug of comfort. "It's okay, you can buy him a new bed, and put it in the living room. That is how you and he solve fights after all."

 **Note: Sam's confusion was mine. I was sure I'd read somewhere that Mary Todd Lincoln had lit the bed on fire on the white house lawn. Then I researched it for this story, and I found no evidence to support that.**


	18. In Which Sam Lies

As soon as it became clear that Jack would not be home for his weekend with the kids, Sam called to cancel it. She didn't let Sara know how desperate the situation was. Even if Jack didn't end up coming back it would do no good to worry the poor women before things were official.

So she's a little surprised when the kids burst into her house without knocking, throw her a quick hug, and then run off to the bedroom.

"They wanted to come see you," Sara says, "I'll take them back if it's an inconvenience, and I told them only for a few hours."

"I'd love to have them," Sam says shocked that they would choose to be with her, "They can stay the weekend as planned if you want. Of course, I don't want to take them from you more than you want."

"You're pregnant?" Sara asks. Sam's surprised that the woman has to put a question mark at the end of it. She's almost five months along.

"Yes," Sam says offering her a tentative smile.

"I think you and Jack should think about telling his kids they'll have a sibling when he gets back," Sara shifts on her feet on Jack's deck.

"It's not his," Sam says.

Sara looks genuinely surprised at this. "It will be though," she says with confidence. "He's a good man."

Sam swallows hard, she knows that Jack would never imagine that Sara would say that. The Sam says, "I'm sorry I didn't mention it before. I guess I though he told you."

Sara smiles, "You mistook Jack for a talker?"

Sam giggles.

Then Sara hands over a bag. "I'll come back for them on Saturday morning. I packed an obsessive mother list of instructions. Call me if you have questions."

Sam nods. Then Sara steps forward, and gives Sam a hug before she leaves.

-0-

"Sam, you've gotten fat," Ava observes as they cook dinner.

"You're rude, Ava," Charlie scolds.

Sam isn't sure if she should do this without Jack, but Sara seems to think that it is necessary, besides there is no guarantee that Jack is going to be coming back. If he doesn't, well, then maybe she could still have some sort of something with these kids. After all, they seem to like her.

"There is a baby growing inside of me, so that is why my stomach is getting larger," Sam says.

"Oh," Ava says with a shrug while turning back to the food.

Charlie stares at her.

"Dad is going to have another kid?"

Sam pauses. She figures this kid might be too young for the details, "Yes."

"And the new baby will get to live with him all the time?" the little boy says sadly.

"Charlie, you know that your dad couldn't love you anymore than he does, right? This baby isn't going to change anything."

She can tell by this kid's face that this isn't the problem, and then it occurs to her.

"Charlie. The same goes for me. I am always going to love you with everything that I have."

"But this baby is really yours," he says.

"There are a lot of ways of looking at 'real'. You don't have to share blood to be real to each other. When I first found out that I was going to have a baby I was really scared. You too were the reason that I started to think I could be a good mother. That's pretty real."

"Yeah, and when I pinch you, you don't wake up," Ava says pinching Sam's arm.

"Yes, you are very real," she says kissing her on the top of the little girl's forehead.

"The baby can share my bed," Ava offers.

Sam frowns at bit at that. They hadn't really considered what would happen with bedrooms when the baby came. They'd better figure that out soon. Of course, if Jack didn't come back she supposed that she would go back to her own house at some point.

There were two rooms there: one for the baby, and one for her.

No, she says looking at these children before her. She was always going to have a place for them, no matter where she went in life.

-0-

"Hi, Carter," Jack says trying to put some distance between himself and her now that the age gap has expanded so exponentially.

She has other ideas, and runs over to him, running a hand through his gray hair.

"Don't get used to it," he says.

"A preview of what I'll get if we grow old together," she teases him.

"The hair, and the wrinkles are going back."

Her face goes grave, "I'm glad you're going to be okay. I was worried."

"I'm going to be old. For weeks."

"Oh, if you think I care about that, you've completely misunderstood our relationship," she giggles. He scoots over, and she willingly takes the spot that he has made for her. "I told your kids about the baby."

"Really?" he says sounding surprised, but not angry.

"Sara thought it was time."

"How did Sara know?" he asks. She examines his face trying to figure out why his voice is different about this than his kids. He's concerned about Sara's feelings, but that not necessarily a problem for Sam. She still doesn't quite know exactly how he feels about his ex-wife, and she really wishes he could figure it out.

"She guessed."

"Ah. So it's maybe about time to start telling people?" Jack asks.

This puzzles her a bit. She figured everyone had figured it out by now. Maybe she would have to make a point to tell a few people in their lives, "I…I lied to your kids, Jack," she mutters.

"Oh?"

"I'm not used to talking to kids that young. They…thought you were the father. I didn't know how to tell them you weren't without dipping into the topic of sex and I didn't feel qualified to do that."

He smiles, "I am very okay with the idea of them thinking that it's my kid."

"Do you wish I would tell everyone that it was your kid?"

He shrugs, "I don't want to lie or anything. I just figured it will be my kid. Eventually."

"Oh that is a good answer," she coos leaning back on the bed pulling her arm over him. He leans forward and kisses a spot on her neck.

She purrs in that way that drives him mad, and she feels something on her side which is certainly not a sidearm.

"Glad to see you are going to still be virile in your old age," she teases.

The then nurse walks in and Sam bashfully stands up from the hospital bed she's been on.


	19. In Which Jacob Arrives

Jack's hands roam over her. They still haven't had sex, but he's already comfortable enough with her body that it feels like it's his. He loves every inch of her. Oh, there are the obvious places, but his favorites are the ones that are just exciting to him. The curve where her hips met her growing stomach. The spot on his neck that makes her purr. Her long lithe fingers groping through his hair.

Today is the day. They've had luck against them in the first five months they've been together, but today is going to be the day that he is going to get to know all the insides of her body as well as he knows the inside.

The doorbell again. Jack is pretty sure the entire universe is conspiring against him and Sam actually becoming intimate.

"Maybe they'll go away," Jack whispers.

"Maybe you should give up on such crazy hopes, and go put your clothes on," she retorts.

-0-

"Who the hell are you?" A man on the other side of the door demands.

"I'm Jack O'Neill," Jack says leaning against the doorposts, "Is there any reason why you decided to arrive at my house and yell at me?"

"George said my daughter was living here. Right now I'm really hoping that I've got the wrong house," the man replies.

"Well, if you're General Carter, then no such luck," Jack says.

Sam walks down the hallway, and says, "Hi, Dad, it's good to see you." She goes in for a hug, but stares at the bulge in her belly in a way that makes her stop.

"George didn't mention you were pregnant," the man says still angry.

"Dad, who is staying with mom?" Sam asks deciding if he isn't going to play fair neither will she.

"Your mother is fine," Jacob says dismissively, and still staring at his daughter's stomach.

"I don't trust that oxygen machine…" Sam starts to protest.

"I got a new one," Jacob says, and then he waves off his daughter's next objection, "And I have a good nurse to look after her when I was gone. As mad as I am at you, I didn't kill my wife to go yell at you."

She hangs her head, and Jack is shocked and confused by this conversation. He and Sam have been practically living together for months now, and he is learning more about her family in this conversation that he has in all of that time.

"I don't know why you want to yell at me."

"Really? How about the fact that for the last six months I have not known where my daughter was?"

"I made sure that you could have gotten in contact with me if you had called me or sent a letter."

"Great job, you left a forwarding address. Normal people when they move across the country, they actually tell their closest relatives."

"There were extenuating circumstances."

"What were those?" he retorts.

"I'm surprised that Hammond didn't give you the whole story when he decided to tattle to you," Sam throws back like a bitter teenager.

"Listen little girl," Jacob says waving his finger at her, "George only told me, because I called him up worried about how long it's been since you came to visit your mother. I know that you and I haven't always seen eye to eye, but you've never taken it out on your mother."

"I'm sorry," Sam says looking seriously ashamed.

"So what happened? You cheated on Jonas and just ran away with…with him?" Jacob says with a tone of absolute derision.

"I didn't cheat on Jonas," Sam says rubbing a hand over her belly.

"Do you even know who the father is?" Jacob asks.

"Jonas is the biological father, but Jack is the real one."

"Jack, this is a Jack?" Jacob asks thumbing his finger at Jack.

"Yes," Sam says.

"Why the hell didn't you just tell us? If you wanted to call off your engagement fine. If you wanted to move across the country. Fine. Just tell us, Sam. I know that we weren't the best parents, but we deserved that at least!"

"You don't understand."

"What could there possibly be to understand? What would justify not letting your parents know that you moved, or letting them know that you were going to have a baby?" he asks waving his arm at her.

"He abused her, Jacob," Jack puts in.

Sam flinches, so she misses the way that her father's anger collapses into concern.

"She left, and didn't want anyone to know where she was, because she wanted to make sure that he was not going to be able to find her."

"Sam, you still should have told _us_ , _"_ Jacob says.

"Jesus Jack," Sam says turning to him in anger, "I thought I explained this to you. I was not some abused damsel in distress. I hit him too," Sam says in frustration.

"Self-defense," her father says. Jack nods in a way that shows he agrees.

"No, it wasn't. Sometimes I was the one who started the fight. This was way more complicated than that. It was bad. It was toxic. But it wasn't all his fault."

"Well, I don't care what you say, if I ever get my hands on him…" Jacob begins.

"He's dead, sir," Jack offers.

His gives Jacob a sharp look.

"In the line of duty," Jack offers.

"Did you know about the kid when you came?" Jacob asks.

"Yeah," Sam admits.

Jacob guesses that this is a part of the reason that his daughter left in the first place. He can't help but be glad for the baby if it saved his daughter from more abuse. He just wonders how his daughter thinks about her surprise baby. He just doesn't know how he should ask, now after he's already done so much yelling at her.

"How long have you been with Jack?" Jacob asks.

Jack was about to answer with a lie in the hopes that it would make Sam look better, but Sam comes out with the truth. "Jack and I have been together since I moved out here."

"Still pretty quick to be moving in together," Jacob points out.

"Thank you for your opinion, Daddy," she quips.

"Have you eaten supper?" Jack asks conversationally trying to ease the tension.

"I did," Jacob says.

"If you had the forethought to pack before you traveled across the country to yell at me you can put your stuff in the…well, it's the kids' room," Sam says.

Jacob has assumed that the "s" was possessive, not plural. He was expecting a room prepared for his grandbaby. So he is not ready for the sight that awaits him when he opens up the door.

"Exactly how many kids have you had without telling your father?" he asks her.

"They're…" Sam is shocked that not claiming the kids as her own is something that causes her this much pain.

"They are mine sir. I was married up until about a year ago. The kids spend time with me each weekend. They… well, they've adopted Sam, sir."

Jacob examines the faces of the two people in front of them. He wonders exactly how serious his daughter is with this new man in her life.

"Sam…" he reaches out and touches her belly. He's uncertain, still wanting to ask her how she feels about it, but not knowing how to word the question so it doesn't sound rude.

She smiles. Unmistakable. She wants to be a mother, and he is certain that she is going to make a wonderful one.

"I'm sorry Sammy," he says hugging her.

"I'm glad you came," she returns.


	20. Concerning Grandparents

Sam wakes in the morning to Jack playing with her hair. "You want to talk about your mom, Sam?"

"Not really," she says.

"Well, I feel like I should have at least the basic information when we are around your dad. She's sick?"

Sam sighs, "Injured. She got into a car accident a long time ago, back when I was a teenager."

"I'm sorry," he says.

"She almost died. She's…never going to be the same. There was a long time, when the machines were doing just about everything for her. There was a time when she really didn't want to live, at least not if she had to keep being dependent on…my father. This are better now. She's off the vent, and she get out of bed and into a wheelchair."

"And you never told her where you were?" Jack says trying to keep the judgement out of her voice.

"She can't use a phone by herself. I couldn't tell her without telling my father."

"Okay, but still. I mean…he seems like a good guy, Sam. He loves you," Jack protests.

"The accident? It was my dad's fault," she says getting out of bed quickly and disappearing into the bathroom before he could ask any follow up questions.

-0-

The smell of coffee lures Jacob out of the bunkbed and into the kitchen. His daughter's new boyfriend hand him a cup of coffee in a "World's Best Dad" mug. It's the first-time Jacob has had one in his hands, and it feels undeserved.

"What do you do for a living?" Jacob asks.

"I work at the Mountain," the man mutters pouring himself coffee in another cup. This one was clearly crafted by childish hands. Jacob isn't even sure if it's actually safe to hold liquids in, let alone hot ones.

"You work for George?" Jacob says clearly impressed, "He only hires the best."

"Hammond is a good one," Jack agrees.

"My daughter is a good one too," Jacob says lightly.

"I am well aware of that, Sir," Jack agrees. The conversation lags, and there is nothing but sips to distract them.

"My kids are coming over today," Jack says at last.

"I'll make myself scarce," Jacob promises.

"You can met them if you want," Jack says leaning back against the counter.

"I really don't think Sam would be okay with that," Jacob says averting his eyes. Jack catches how much the older man wants it in his eyes.

"I know she blames you for her mother's accident, but…" Jack begins.

"She's right to," Jacob says. Jack isn't willing to ask a follow up question, but Jacob offers more information anyway, "I was supposed to pick her mother up from the airport. I was late. I was late, because Dot and I were fighting. She just about lost her life, because of it."

"I'm sorry, Jacob," Jack says.

"I just want you to talk to Sam before you let me hang around her kids."

"I left my gun out, and my son shot my daughter," Jack says looking down. Jacob looks at the cup in his hand. Was this pre or post-accident?

"She's okay?" Jacob asks hoping that the frills on the bed means the girl is still alive.

"Yeah, she lived. She's going to be in pain forever, but she has less long term effects than…"

"Then my wife," Jacob finishes for him.

"I'm just saying I know how one mistake can change everything," Jack observes.

-0-

"Daddy!" Charlie says throwing his arms around his father. His relationship with his father has gone a long way to being repaired since the other version of his father had a talk with him.

"Hey, little man," Jack says pulling him up into his arms. "This is Jacob. He's Sam's dad."

The kid blinks at the man before him, "Okay, what does that mean?"

"It means that Sam is his daughter, Dumbo," his sister offers.

"I mean, is he anything to me?" Charlie returns. Even though the words sound rude, the intention behind them does not feel rude.

"Well, I don't exactly know how often my dad is going to be around, kiddo, but he's going to be a sort of long distance grandparent figure."

"Cool," the kid says with a shrug.

"Does he like to play hide-and-seek?" Ava asks.

"I think he might have a bit too much military training to play a game like that with you kid," Jack warns.

"I tell you what munchkin. I'll count extra-long just to give you a bit of a chance," the military man says with a wide grin. As soon as he covers his eyes the kids run off frantically trying to find a place to hide in time.


	21. In Which Daniel Dies

Jacob stayed a little more than a week. Neither Sam or Jack had any thoughts of resuming the behavior that he'd interrupted while Sam's father was in the house.

Jack had a mission he had to leave for at two o'clock in the morning the night after Jacob left, so that also wasn't a great time for them to come together the first time.

When Jack arrives home that night he finds Sam in a lot of lace. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say very little lace, but absolutely nothing but lace. It was an outfit that would get his blood pumping in literally any other circumstance. This just wasn't any other circumstance. This was him coming to tell the woman he loved that their mutual best friend had died.

"Sam," he says, and she tries to make sense of the devastation in his voice. Is she doing something wrong.

He sees the confusion written all over her face, and doesn't want what he is about to tell her to have anything to do with sex in her mind, so he walks past her to the bathroom to get a robe for her. It's his own, and it smells like him, so it doesn't have quite the effect on dampening her libido that he was hoping for.

"Daniel died," he says.

"No," she states with such confidence that some part of his mind believes it.

"Sam," he says reaching out to her.

"No, that's not fair. He was a really good person."

"There is nothing fair about death," Jack says softly.

"Jonas already died, I should…I should be _excused_ from this for a while!" she objects.

"That's not really the way it works," Jack insists.

"We have to…contact his family. We have to tell someone."

"Daniel didn't really have family," Jack reminds her.

"I know that he was in foster care, but there has to be extended family somewhere. We have to look them up, find them, explain what happened."

"I'm sure the General is going to take care of that."

"No, not the General. It has to be us," she says.

"Sam, I'll look for someone to contact tomorrow, but honestly, I think we have to accept that we are his next of kin. We're the closest thing that he has to family."

"Well, that wasn't very fair either," she pouts.

"I know, but it's better than when he didn't have anyone," Jack reminds her.

"I was going to ask him to be my baby's godfather," she whispers.

"He would have been honored."

"I suppose I am going to have to find someone outside of the mountain to do that. Certainly no one who works in the mountain is going to live long enough to raise this child, and I don't want my father ending up getting burdened by it."

"No one is going to consider raising that little angel a burden, and I am sure that that both you and I are going to be around for a long time to take care of him."

"Well, up until a few minutes ago I thought that Daniel was going to be around for a long time too. I have to fill out this care plan. Even though I'm not technically in the Air Force, they want me to make sure I have people to take care of my kid in case I'm stuck off world or something when I go back to work after he is born. I don't think I was taking the whole thing seriously enough. I was writing down people like you and Janet. Who am I kidding? If I can't take care of my baby neither of you are probably going to be able to either," she says the whole rant with barely a breath. It's a feat she might have been able to pull of pretty easily before the pregnancy, but now going that long without air takes way too much out of her.

"Sam. We're not going to be making any major life decisions right now. Grief is just not a time when you can think logically. But if you still feel like this in a couple of weeks I will resign my commission. It would be a couple of months before I was out, but you probably wouldn't even be back from maternity leave yet."

"I would never ask you do that. It's not even your kid, Jack."

Jack sighs, placing his hand on her stomach. The baby moves. To feel evidence of life when he has spent the day soaked in death is such a relief to him. He tries to hide his excitement, he feels pretty guilty feeling happiness for any reason so soon after he told her that their friend died.

"Sam. I love this kid. You get that right?"

She nods.

"I missed a lot with Charlie, and Ava. Especially Charlie. I was oversees. Sarah kept begging me to take a different job that would mean I was home a lot more. She kept begging me to quit. She had to do it all alone, and she had to worry about what would happen if I died, and she ended up raising those kids on her own. I don't want to do that to anyone again."

Sam knows that Jack takes all the blame for the divorce onto himself. "Jack, I'm not going to leave you if you stay in the Air Force. I understand that it's a big part of you."

"I appreciate that," he says giving her a weak smile, "I just don't want you to be unhappy. I want you to have everything that you want out of life."

"I have you, and that's a lot. I wish I still had Daniel though," she says more seriously causing the grief to hit him in the chest all over again.

"I know," he says seriously.

"I feel like watching some really bad TV."

"Okay," he says giving her a quick kiss on the forehead. She hands him the remote, and then heads to the bedroom to change. It's only then that he remembers the outfit she had on when he came home.

Yep, the universe is definitely conspiring to keep him from ever getting laid.


	22. Concerning Resurrection

Sam still can't believe that Daniel is alive and well. Every time he is out of her eyesight for even a couple of seconds she becomes so anxious she can't even cope with the world around her. So he stays the night, and the coupling of Sam and Jack gets delayed a little longer.

Sam has reached the uncomfortably large section of her pregnancy, and Jack has begun to resign himself to the fact that he isn't going to get to be with her until sometime after the baby is born. Perhaps, if the universe has its way, he and Sam will never get to know each other in a carnal way.

Even so, he knows that he is going to love her forever.

"Daniel, I have a very important question to ask you," Sam says as she sits next to him on the couch, holding his hand. It's the sort of thing that used to make Jack wonder if there wasn't more to their relationship than either of them liked to admit, but now he understands that this is all part of the desperate need Sam has to prove that Daniel is still alive. Jack has a great deal of that same need himself.

"Is it time to make myself scarce?" he asks with a grin which is almost hopeful. Yep, as close as Daniel and Sam is he is routing for Jack and Sam to make it.

"No. I wanted to ask if you would be willing to be my baby's godfather. It's going to be a little bit of a unique circumstance, because I would list Jack to take care of him before you in the will, but if something were to happen to both Jack and I you would be the one that I would want to take care of my son," she says with a smile. She's more than a little concerned by the somber way in which Daniel is receiving the news.

"I don't understand. How did almost dying convince you that I would be the right one to take care of your kid? I think not being dead is a pre-requite for this sort of thing," Daniel says. He is obviously trying to make a joke, but his tone is too serious for one.

"Daniel you are family. There are not that many people who I would actually trust to raise my son if I couldn't do it myself, and all of the people who are in that category work in the mountain. I have other back-up plans, but if I can't…I want you to," she says seriously.

His eyes go a little bit wet, "I'm sure this is just because you thought you lost me. If I give you a couple of weeks to re-think it you are going to realize that you would much rather have someone else."

"I had actually made this decision before you went missing," she say.

"Well then, I'm honored," he says grinning like a small child who just won an unexpected award.

"You just keep coming home, especially now that you know your little godson is waiting for you," she says leaning her head on him.

Daniel looks up to Jack to make sure that what is happening right now is okay with the older man. He's had to deal with enough of the fall out of jealousy with these too that he doesn't want to risk dealing with anymore of it. Jack's face is calm, and focused not on Sam, but on Daniel himself. The face looks downright fatherly, and Daniel doesn't miss the fact that Jack was just as upset by his absence as Sam was, even if he isn't going to show it with the holding of hands and the head on the shoulder like she is.

-0-

Sam frowns at the crib.

"What's wrong? It's the one Ava used, but I don't think it's too girly. They didn't make white a girly color did they?"

"It's not that," Sam hedges.

"Okay, well, you don't have to like it. I probably should have talked to you before I went over to Sarah's to get it, but it's okay I'll just lug it back."

"It's just that they don't make them like this anymore. It's…not considered safe anymore," Sam practically whispers. As soon as the words are out of her mouth she wishes that she had never said them. "Jack, I know that they thought this was safe when you had Ava. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I put my kids in danger."

"You didn't know!" she exclaims.

"I'm not talking about the crib, Carter," he says suddenly turning and facing her fiercely, "You can't forgive your dad, because he was late to pick your mom up from the Airport one time, and she got hurt. How the hell must you feel about me for leaving my gun out?"

"Jack, I don't blame you."

"Well that doesn't make sense to me, because I am way less at fault than your father was, and you can't forgive him!" Jack says bursting out with something that has been weighing on him for a long time now.

"It wasn't really about the accident," she says, "I mean, that's and easy place to channel the anger through, but it's not the cause. My parents were going to get a divorce before the car accident. She left him, for a couple of months. I begged her to come back, to come back and get us in the very least. I wanted to live with my mom. He didn't pick her up on time, because he was mad at her. He was pissed that she was coming to take his kids away."

Jack can relate to that, with a sharp amount of panic as he thinks about what would happen if Sara suddenly wanted to take his kids from him, but he isn't going to tell Sam any of this this right now.

"Then she gets in this accident, and almost dies. She's in the hospital for months. At first both I and Mark spent almost all of our time in the hospital. He only lasted for a couple of weeks. They finally tell her that she can come home, but only if she has someone to live with. Sometime to take care of her. I volunteer of course, but I'm fourteen."

"So, Jacob volunteered," Jack adds.

"Yes, and my mom has to spend the whole rest of her life not only married to, but completely dependent on the man that she tried to leave. All because I called up my mom and begged her to come and get me. If I'd just let her be free, just been happy with my father none of this would have happened."

"First of all, I think Jacob was pretty noble to do this."

"I get the martyr side of all of this."

"Also, Sam, what happened wasn't your fault."

"If I never asked her to come back, then she never would have gotten hurt."

"If I never left my gun out…" he says.

"It's not the same Jack!"

"You're right. I did something dangerous and negligent. What you did, was ask for your mother to come home," she looks down, "Sam, would you blame Ava if she did what you did?" Sam shakes her head. "That whole thing about how Charlie needed to see me forgive myself? I think it goes for your dad and you too, but in reverse. I think your dad is never going to forgive himself for what happened to your mother until you forgive him."

"I don't think that I'm that important to him," she objects.

"Oh Sammy," he says putting a hand on her stomach, "I thought you would have figured out by now how someone could think their child was the most important thing in the world." He lets her cry for a little bit before he quietly asks, "How do your dad and mom get along now?"

"They don't fight," she says but the words have a clip to them.

"Is it only because your mother is too sick to fight?"

"Partly. They have an endless peace treaty. She knows that she relies on him, and she is grateful to him. He pities her, feels sorry for her."

"Sam, you offered to take care of you mom when you were fourteen. We need to look into getting a bigger place together, preferably before the baby comes. What if we got a place that was a little bit bigger so your mother could come?"

"She doesn't just need a room. She needs almost full-time care."

"We could hire someone."

"Of course! We'd have to, but we would also be doing a lot of work myself. Not fun work either. Feeding, and checking machines, and changing diapers."

"We're going to have a baby in the new house. There were going to be diapers involved anyway."

Sam pauses, "I just realized that you buried the suggestion to live with me in with the practical talk about my mom."

"I did kind of slip it in there," he says nervously.

"Did you think I wasn't going to say yes unless you hid the question?" she asks running an arm over his upper arm.

"It's not conditional. You could agree to buy a house with me even if you don't want to ask your mom to live with us."

"But I can say yes to both?" she asks.

"Of course."

"I think I want to. But not right away. I don't want to have my mom move in when I am pregnant, or when I have a newborn. Someday, as long as you know what you are getting yourself into."

"I don't know much about it, but I do know that family is family. We're figure out whatever we need to."

"You'll do reading up on it before we give her the final invite right?"

He nods,


	23. In Which X Marks the Spot

"So, what do you think of this house?" the relator asks after finishing a tour of the house with Sam.

Sam shrugs meekly.

"You need to consult with your husband no doubt," the realtor says with a glance toward her belly.

"We're not married actually, and I don't know why he's not here," she feels embarrassed by Jack's tardiness. Normally, he really is very reliable, and she knows that if he's late it must be a Stargate related inevitability.

"It's fine, you can just give me a call when he's available, and we can reschedule a showing," the woman offers with a bright smile before slipping Sam her card, and getting into the car.

Sam sits down in her own car, and drives home to the house that she knows is going to be empty. She really hopes that this is not a foretaste of what living with Jack is going to be like. There is a big part of her that is terrified of being home alone with her injured mother, and kids. She is terrified of doing this all alone.

-0-

She knows how desperately wrong things when she sees Jack's face as he walks through the door. He sits down the couch. She goes into the kitchen and grabs him a beer. As she hands it to him she asks, "Is everyone still alive Jack?"

"Yes," Jack says.

"What happened?" Sam asks.

He stares at the beer bottle in his hand, and hands it back to her, "I want to have a clear head tonight, thank you very much."

She accepts that Jack isn't going to talk to her. So she just curls up next to him on the couch. He puts an arm around her. "It will be okay."

"Tell me about your day. Tell me something normal," he says.

"I went to see that new house that we were looking at," she says.

"Shit. I forgot."

"It's okay, I'm sure you had a good reason for skipping the appointment."

"I was with another woman," he says in a voice cold and unimpassioned.

"No, you weren't," Sam says in confused disbelief as she twists so she can get a better look at his face.

"I was. She did this to me," he says lifting up his shirt. Sam expects to see some kind of wound there, but all she sees is the same stomach and chest that she's always seen. As he sees the confusion on her face he looks down at himself. He seems confused to see himself. "I forgot, Janet fixed it."

"Janet?" Sam says. There is no way that he cheated on her with Janet is there?

"Janet put me in the box, and it made the x go away," he says absently.

"Honey, are you sure they let you leave?" she asks deeply concerned about him.

"I think they had bigger problems," he says.

"What exactly happened today, Jack?"

"There was a Goa'uld there. She made all the men do what she wanted. She just about took over the whole world. She would have too if the women hadn't saved our butts."

"So the 'other women' was someone who brainwashed you?" she asks.

"Hathor. Yes."

"Jack, that doesn't count, whatever she made you do, doesn't count," Sam sooths. Twice now, twice now some other women has taken advantage of him.

"She didn't make me…Daniel fathered them."

What? "Who, Jack, who did Daniel father?"

"The worms," Jack says waving his hands.

"Goa'uld? Daniel made infant Goa'uld with her?" she asks her stomach turning at the thought.

Jack nods his head.

"Jack, is somebody looking after him?"

"Teal'c wasn't affected. He stayed with Daniel. Teal'c wanted me to stay too, but I came home to you."

"Okay, Jack, I've got you," she says running her hand through his hair, "Can you tell me what she did do to you?"

"She turned me into a Jaffa," he says touching his stomach.

"Oh, Jack, how did Janet fix that?"

"The sarcophagus."

"We have one of those now?" she asks with no small amount of excitement. It would greatly increase the chances that Jack would keep coming home to her.

"It got blown up."

"Damn," she says.

He makes a deep chortle in his throat which shows he agrees with her.

"You want some distraction?" she asks.

"Yes, stupid mind numbing television please," he whispers to her.


	24. Concerning a Delay

Neither of them would have predicted it would have been Sam that was not ready the next time they tried to have sex. Traumatized by what happened with Hathor, he avoided her advances more than once, but this night it seemed like whatever curse was preventing them from being together was finally going to end.

When Sam starts breathing hard under him he mistakes it for excitement at first. When he realizes that she is having a panic attack he feels simply awful. He pulls away from her, and sits on the bed next to her waiting until her breath returns to normal.

"I don't even know what that was," she practically whispers.

"It was a panic attack, Sam. Is that the first time that it's happened?" he asks gently.

"Yes, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, Sam," he says. There is anger in his eyes, and it's only with the easy tone that he says this that she realizes the anger is not for her. He guessed more about the whole thing than he thought he would.

She runs a hand over her belly, "When this baby was conceived…" she begins, but she can't continue the sentence.

"Jonas raped you."

"It wasn't…" Sam begins, but Jack cuts her off. He is done with her excuses for the monster that she used to date.

"No Sam. It was rape. It was rape, or else you wouldn't have a panic attack like that."

She pauses. Surprising even herself, she has changed a great deal in the short time that she has known him. "Maybe it was. I don't think he meant it to be though."

"That doesn't matter."

"I was into what was happening…" she begins

"You're allowed to change your mind at any time," he interrupts.

"I know," she says softly. "He refused to put on a condom. I told him no, and then he continued. I must have tensed up, because it hurt like hell. I screamed and it didn't matter."

"It didn't hurt because you tensed up Sam. It hurt because he was raping you."

"He said that after a certainly point, a man just couldn't stop."

"Well, that is just absolute shit," Jack declares.

He holds out his arm with a question on his face. She nods, and he lays on the bed next to her.

"I usually don't even use condoms as protection," she adds, "I use the pill. But he used to cheat on me, so I told him some lie about how the pill negatively affected my body, so he would use a condom. If I had been more honest with him…"

"They you wouldn't be about to have a wonderful son," he finishes for her.

She leans more against him, "I might have been able to have _your_ son, when it was right."

Jack puts his hand on the bulging stomach, "I am furious about what he did to you, but I don't regret this particular unique baby being here."

"Before I told you about the baby, I wasn't sure I was going to keep him," she whispers. She examines his face quickly looking for any sign of he is shocked or horrified.

"I think it's understandable that you felt that way, but I'm really glad you changed your mind."

"I am too," she says.

He takes a deep breath, and sighs with contentment when he smells her hair. It does something to her insides, the way this man loves her.

"I've got to warn you though," she tells him, "I'm getting stronger being around you. You keep that up, and I might leave if you cheat on me."

"Sam, I already have," he says sadly.

"Kynthia doesn't count," she tells him.

"You really think so? Then what happened to the bed?" he asks.

"Daniel has a big mouth."

"Daniel didn't say a word, did you seriously think I wasn't going to notice that there was a different bed there when I got home than when I left?"

"I got one that was the exact same kind."

He reaches his hand up, "Charlie chewed on the old one when he was teething."

"Well, I'm sorry I burnt it then," she says pouting.

"Burnt it? You set our bed on fire?" he says.

"I didn't know about the cake then. I never would have done it if I knew it wasn't your choice," she says.

His face goes hard, "Sam, I don't want to lie to you. What happened beyond Kynthia and I…" he struggles to come up with the next words.

"If you don't think things are complicated between Jonas and I then you shouldn't think they were complicated between Kythia and you. She drugged you."

"You are never going to have to worry about me cheating on you again," he promises her instead of arguing with her. He has already figured out that any accusation of himself will sound like an accusation of her.

"Even if it takes a long time for me to be ready for sex?"

"I have long ago accepted that the universe has decided that you and I are never going to be together."


	25. Cassie

It was Daniel who told Sam about Cassie at first. He walked into Sam's lab with a smile on his face. "Jack might have picked up another hitchhiker on our mission," he says leaning against the doorway.

"Please tell me that some other women did not fall in love with him," Sam begs.

"I won't call her a woman," Daniel says.

"What?" Sam asks her alarm not disappearing, but changing shape.

"Well, a little girl might just have captured his heart. She's been through a lot, Sam."

"Where is she?" Jack asks.

"VIP room," Daniel says.

"Daniel, go ask the General if we can bring her home."

Sam and Jack had just moved into a new house a week before. It has six rooms, which seamed excessive until you really started to do the math. Sam and Jack would need one room, one would be for the baby, one for Charlie, one for Ava, and then two rooms for Sam's mother and a nurse if she should choose to come to live with them. If not, they would convert them into offices.

In any case, one of the rooms of the house was made for a little girl right now. It was pink, and frilly, and full of dolls and books. She felt a desperate need to bring this little orphan there.

When she sees the girl she realizes the room is not right for her, because she is a lot older than was implied by Daniel's words.

"Hi," she says with a smile.

"Cassie, this is Sam. She's going to stay with you for a little bit okay?" Jack asks.

The little girl wraps her arms around Jack, and refuses to let go.

"Okay honey, I'll stay," he promises with a giggle.

"I had Daniel ask if you could come home with you. We've got a room a lot nicer there than this one. It's meant for a little girl, although one who is a lot smaller than you."

Cassie looks at them with a question in her eye. Both adults answer the question that she thinks they are asking.

"Yes, we live together," Jack says.

"It's a room for Jack's little girl Ava, but she only lives with us part time, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing with you for a while."

Cassie smiles, and starts to walk toward the door.

"Not quite yet. Daniel is asking permission for us. We can only take you if the general decides it is okay."

Cassie puts a hand on Sam's stomach.

"This is my son."

Cassie looks at Jack obviously confused by the face Sam had chosen to say "my" instead of "our" Sam really hopes he is going to field the question. Cassie is a lot older than his kids were, old enough that she could probably understand a story a bit closer to reality than the one he gave to the little kids.

"The baby is going to live with Sam and I when it is born, full time," he says with a smile. It's a nice way of handling things. Simple, clear, and completely without lies.

Sam can't help but wonder if they are not giving Cassie a pretty flawed impression of what Earth culture is like.

"Most Earth families are not as complicated as ours is."

Jack puts an arm around her. He desperately wants to say that he hopes this Earth family is going to get more complicated, but he knows better than to make promises to a girl that he doesn't know if he can keep. Instead he says, "But as long as everyone has lots of love it doesn't really matter how complicated the family is."

-0-

He can hear the panic attack from the other side of the bathroom door. He had been hoping, really sincerely hoping that Sam was only ever going to have to suffer one of those.

"Sam? Let me in honey," he coaxes.

"I'm fine Jack," she says with words clearly drown in tears.

"You're not fine, Sam. Just let me in. I just want to hold you until you feel better."

She opens the door, to reveal a face more red than he thought humans could go, and eyes more bloodshot than tear choked. He doesn't say a word, but just pulls her into a tight hug.

"I just started thinking about everything. The baby, Cassie, and my mother, and I just panicked. Then I started to think about my panicking and how this is not the way that adults deal with things, and it just made it so much worse."

"Sam, we don't have to take Cassie in."

"Jack, she is a little girl who just watched her whole planet die. The only time I saw her eyes light up was when she saw the panda bear on the wall of Ava's room. I'm not going to in there and inform her that she is homeless."

"That's not what we would be doing Sam. You know that Janet would be willing to take that little girl in. If not, we'd find her somewhere. And your mom doesn't have to come live with us either. She's been fine with your dad for years."

"She's been with him a long time, exactly! That's why she deserves a break! A change in pace! I can't just abandon her."

"Sam sweetie, you matter too. You matter just as much as your Mom, and Cassie, and the baby. Let's take some time away from everything, from your job, and kids, and thinking about the future. Let's just go to my cabin for a week. Then when we come back you can choose out the parts of your life you really want to keep. Okay? I mean, our bio kids stay, but the rest is all optional."

"Jack, I'm eight months pregnant."

"I said Minnesota, not the end of the Earth. We do have doctors there."

"Okay," she says leaning against him. He can feel the moment that her tense muscles relax, and he wonders if she even knew that she had clenched them.


	26. The Cabin

"Is there usually this much snow in March?" Sam asks in surprise. The amount of snow had increased at a rate that could only be described as startling for the last hundred miles or so.

"Minnesota weather is hard to predict, and March is the most fickle month that I've ever seen. It could be forty or it could be sixty. It could even be both of those in a single day."

"I think I might have under packed," Sam says with a laugh.

Jack's face goes grave at the words, and Sam shoots him a confused look.

"I just realize there is a bunch of Sara's clothes still up here. I don't know why she didn't ask me for them."

"She probably forgot about them just like you did."

"Maybe," Jack says. "There are some clothes for the kids here to, but I think they've probably outgrown them. We'll keep some of them for the baby. It's always nice to have a wide size variety of swimsuits and snowsuits at the cabin when there are kids concerned."

It's far from the first time that Sam has considered how much more he knows about children than her. She considers this face with gravity and guilt. She knows that she is going to be relying on his knowledge. She needs to have a back-up plan right now. Not only that, but their preparations for the baby have made it quite clear he wants to be very involved in taking care of the baby. Yet it's not his, and she feels bad making him half to deal with it.

"You okay?" he asks. More and more often as the baby's due date approaches he sees her lost in thought rubbing her stomach. This would of course be behavior for an expectant mother, but it's the face that she wears as she does it that has Jack concerned. It's pure worry without even the slightest trace of delight.

"Fine," she smiles.

"Sam, can you just share with me what's wrong?" he asks.

"I don't think I can do it."

"I told you that we don't have to do it all. Cassie is at Janet's now, and Janet would be more than happy to keep her there. We haven't asked your mom to come stay with us. You don't have to do it all."

"I'm not sure I can even do one simple thing."

Jack is confused by that comment, "You do thousands of things a day. Sam, you do understand that no one else in the galaxy could actually do your job as well as you do."

She fidgets under the praise which has the effect of adding another burden onto her already heavy load.

"Ah," he says understanding tardily, "When you say that you are not sure that you can do it all, what you mean to say is you are not sure that you can take care of your baby. That's what you are worried about isn't it? Sam you are going to be an amazing mother."

"You don't know that."

"I've seen you with my kids Sam, you're a natural."

"They arent't babies."

"Okay, but you didn't have a whole lot to do with kids their ages before you got to know them either, right? You'll get used to babies in the same way that you got used to my kids."

There is a long silence in the car. Jack's heart is beginning to break. He knows the words that he has to say next, but everything in him doesn't want to say him. He hopes with everything that is in him that he is wrong. He stamps down his own anger. Anger at himself, anger at her. He feels like this question should have been asked a long time ago. Now he's been loving this baby inside her for so long it will kill him to let go.

Still, Sam matters too. If the only way to prove it to her is by asking the question then he is going to do it.

Even if means she might say yes.

"Sam, I know that early in the pregnancy you debated having an abortion. Did you ever consider adoption?"

"No, at the time, I would have had to get Jonas to sign off on it. I was afraid of what he'd do to the baby if he knew it existed."

"That's not true anymore," Jack points out.

"I know," she observes.

"Look, I'm not saying this because I don't think you can handle it. I absolutely know that you can handle it. I'm definitely not saying this because I don't want the baby in my life. Giving up that kid now would just about kill me, Sam. I'm saying this because you seem really stressed and unhappy. You're taking on way too much, and you don't have to."

Then Sam really considers it for the first time, "It's my baby," she says firmly.

"Thank God!" Jack explains slamming his hand against his steering wheel in relieved joy.

"It's funny. Here I was worrying about whether or not I was going to do a good enough job, but as soon as you suggest someone else raising my baby all of my control freak impulses kick in."

"Oh yeah?" Jack asks.

"For sure. I was just thinking about all the parents I knew. You know friends, parents of my friends from when I was a kid, my own parents for goodness sake."

"None of them perfect?" Jack asked in mock disbelief.

"I'm not going to be either, but I guess this kid is just going to have to take me as I come."

"He is wise to do so, because you come pretty amazing," Jack says putting a hand over her stomach gently.

"You know, when I first found out that I was going to have a baby Teal'c told me a myth from his planet about how parents choose the parents that are going to make them into the best possible version of themselves. It's kind of a pretty myth."

"It is," Jack says.

"I guess I can trust this little mite, and attempt to be worthy of his esteem," she says.

"And I'll be there to help you, every step of the way," Jack assures her.

"I want to give Cassie a choice. I mean, not a fake choice like this little guy has," she says putting a hand over her stomach, "But a real, here are the facts choice. I want to tell her what our family is like, have her live with us for a little more time, introduce her to your kids. Then I want her to decide if she wants to take us as we are, or go and live with someone else."

"Okay," Jack says, "If you're sure. I don't want you to end up stressing yourself out too much."

"I think I just need to relax, and stop expecting myself to be the perfect parent with all of the answers."

"That would help," he sooths touching her knee.

Sam's attention is drawn to the snow falling outside of the car. The beauty makes the car lapse into a reverend silence. Sam's mind wonders to the fact that very soon, she and Jack are going to be all alone at his cabin, in the beautiful snow, enjoying what is perhaps their very last (and first) chance to have sex before the baby (and goodness only knows how long after).

"I'm really glad that you talked me into taking some time off for this," she says sighing against him.

"So am I," he agrees.


	27. One Hell of an Interuption

By the next morning, the beautiful snow of the previous day has transformed itself into something a bit more threatening.

"Jack, do you think we could get to town right now?" Sam asks emerging from her morning shower.

Jack surveys the sight outside the window. It's still coming down in unreally large snowflakes (almost snow balls though light and fluffy ones). It's doubtful they would start the plows until they did, especially with all the wind and the resulting blowing snow. His remote cabin is not exactly first on the list of things to be plowed even if they did get started.

"I don't think so, but don't worry, I brought enough food to last a lot longer than the blizzard is going to."

"My water broke," Sam says.

"Shit," Jack says standing and blinking at her.

"There is no way we're getting out of that driveway is there?" Sam asks nervously.

"No, and there is no way the emergency responders are getting in either," Jack tells her.

"Then let's not even call them," Sam pleads.

"Sam, honey, they can still give us advice."

"Jack, if I have to have this baby through teleconference, I don't want it to be with strangers. Call Daniel."

"You mean Janet."

"Daniel has delivered babies before."

"Janet is a doctor."

"I know, but she never actually delivered a baby before."

"Really?" Jack asks.

Sam nods.

"Okay honey. Let's get you settled down on the bed, and we'll get the phone in there."

"No, the bathroom floor."

"Sam, labor can take a really long time. You're not going to be laying on bathroom tile the whole time! That's absurd!"

"Jack, this is going to be very messy. I do not really want to be worrying about whether or not I am staining anything the whole time that I am in labor."

"Okay, so just don't worry about that. If you think I care about my bed more than I care about this baby then you are crazy."

"Jack, I'm going to worry about staining stuff. There is no way to avoid it apart from my plan. So go get your least favorite pillow, and a couple towels and meet me in the bathroom. I'm going to find a scissors and some clamps. I assume you do have rubbing alcohol."

"Already in the bathroom."

-0-

"What did he do?" Daniel asks as soon as Sam greets him on the phone. He has become rather familiar with smoothing things over between his two friends. He knows that without him their fights can get pretty creative, and oftentimes he would almost rather let them get their fight out, and hear the story afterword than to actually save them from the fight.

"The baby is coming," she says.

"What? Really? You're at the hospital already?"

"Daniel, there is going to be no hospital. There is a giant storm right now, and there is no way that we're going to get out."

"I'll talk to the general, maybe we can get in a helicopter," Daniel says frantically.

"What? No. Daniel I don't want people to risk their safety for this. I'm fine. We're fine. I just called you for your midwife services."

"Seriously? Sam, I'll find you a doctor."

"Daniel, I want you to help me, okay?" Her words might not have been so convincing if she hadn't had a contraction right then. It was the first one that she hadn't confused with Braxton-Hicks, and it takes her by surprise. It knocks the air out of her for a second.

"Whatever you want, Sam," Daniel pledges.

"You got Daniel on the phone?" Jack asks entering the room. His arms are absolutely full of bedding. Sam gives him a glare before selecting a few things out of the array and making herself a resting place on the floor.

"Jack, you're going to have to check how dilated she is," Daniel says evenly.

"No," Sam objects, "The first time he sees me it's not going to be for a gross medical reason."

Jack takes her hands in his, "This baby is not gross, Sam. Okay. I love you with my whole heart. We are going to have years to enjoy that area of your body in a romantic fashion. Right now, I need to make sure our son is okay, right? The most important thing is helping that baby into the world."

"You said our son," Sam repeats.

"Not okay?" Jack asks concerned.

"Very, very, very, okay, Jack," she says.

He smiles at her, "Okay, Sammy. Now which one of us is taking off the pants?"

"Eww guys," Daniel objects from the phone.

"It's a purely medical baby related question," Jack shoots at him. Then to Sam he says, "Are you absolutely sure that Daniel is old enough to handle this?"

"He's fine," Sam says standing up once more to ready herself for the examination.

A few seconds later as she lays on the floor she feels exposed, as well as cold. Jack drapes a blanket over her lap which takes care of both of the unpleasant feelings. Then, the gentle probing with chilled fingers brings her back to discomfort.

"It's like, an inch and a half," Jack says.

"You're supposed to give dilations in centimeters," Daniel corrects.

"What do you want from me? I went to school before they started all that metric system crap," Jack says with a shrug.

"Please do not point out how much older you are then me when your head is between my legs," Sam says causing both of the men to giggle.

"That's about five centimeters probably. We're about half way there already. This thing probably isn't going to go on too much longer," Daniel says.

"Fast labor, that's what we wanted to hear," Jack says giving the outside of Sam's leg a little tap. She lowers her knees to the floor, and Jack leans against the wall. "Anything I can do to make this easier?" the question is addressed to both Daniel and Sam.

"It's a bit of a waiting game at first," Daniel replies.

"Sanitize the stuff for cutting the umbilical chord," she commands.

"Right," he says, dutifully beginning the work.

-0-

"Sam stop pushing!" Jack commands. Then into the phone he practically shouts, "Daniel, the cord is wrapped around his neck!"

"It's not a big deal, it actually happens about a fourth of the time," Daniel replies calmly.

"What do I do?" Jack shouts.

"Try to pull it over," Daniel says, and you can almost hear the eye roll on the other end of the phone.

Jack offers Sam a weak smile as apology for his recent freak out. Then he attempts to follow Daniel's commands.

"It's not working. It's too tight."

Sam lets out a muffled yelp of frustration. It's taking everything within her to refrain from pushing. She wants to save the energy she is wasting now in not pushing for when it comes time to push.

"All right, next we're going to try a different position. Something that will let gravity do some of the work for us," Daniel says with a voice still calm, although made more sympathetic by the noise his friend just let slip.

"What position, Daniel?" Jack asks.

"Squatting," Daniel says. Sam doesn't make a sound of protest, and she starts to have herself up, but her eyes are clearly letting Jack know that what Daniel has asked of her is not going to be easy.

"You seriously want her to squat? Daniel she doesn't have the energy for that!" Jack says.

"Trust me, this is a lot better than what is next on the list of solutions," Daniel says grimly.

"Just don't let the baby smash his head on the floor," Sam pleads to Jack getting herself into a position that she is finding far more comfortable than she thought she would when she was sitting on the floor.

"Okay," Jack says with a grunt, "I've got it. He's free, you can push again."

The pushing feels like relaxation compared to the holding in that Sam has done, and her son's head slides into the world.

"Good job," Jack smiles, "Daniel she can sit back down now right? While we wait for the next contraction?"

"She can."

"I'm actually good like this. It's easier this way," Sam says.

"Actually, most ancient cultures gave birth in positions similar to this. They found an ancient Samarian birthing stool that dates back to…" Daniel begins.

"Not the time, Danny boy," Jack says.

Then comes the contraction which brings her baby boy into the world. Jack keeps his promise of not letting the world start with a bump on the head for this little mite. He guides him gently onto the towel on the bathroom floor.

The baby screams angrily at the indignation of such treatment. Jack helps Sam get lowered back into a sitting position before putting her son, wrapped in a towel in her arms. Immediately upon receiving the child to herself she begins to bawl uncontrollably.

"What's wrong, Jack, what happened?" Daniel asks panicked on the other end of the phone.

"Happy tears, Daniel. We did it," Jack says sitting down.

"Go ahead and rest, Jack, but we've still got more to do," Daniel reminds him.

Jack looks at Sam questionly, "Placenta," she says.

"Right, can we get that done with?" he asks.

"Give me a minute with Caleb," she responds.

Sam had told him months ago that she had selected a name for her son, but that she wasn't going to tell him. She had dropped hints afterword, and pretended they were by accident, even though he was pretty sure that they had all been dropped with the express purpose of torturing him.

Now that he hears the name his heart is so full it feels like it's bursting.

"I like it. Hebrew…" Daniel begins from the phone.

"So help me Daniel, if you tell me what that word means right now I'm going to hang up on you."

Sam giggles.

"You wouldn't do that. Sam wants me on the phone, and she's having a baby, so right now you would give her anything she wanted."

"He's not wrong," Sam says.

"He's not," Jack agrees.

"Speaking of wants. I really want a steak."

"You want a steak, right now?" Jack asks flabbergasted as he surveys the blood covered bathroom and the tightly bound messy little thing in her arms.

"Well, obviously not right now. I want to finish giving birth first, and then get cleaned up. But yes, I do want a steak soon."

"Will it even be okay for her to eat?" Jack asks Daniel.

"Yes, it's fine. It wouldn't be a good idea to eat right before the birth, risk of throwing up and what not. After though, it's fine as soon as she is hungry."

"Do they normally get hungry this soon after giving birth?" Jack asks still amazed.

"Every birth is different, Jack," Daniel says.

"Would you boys mind postponing this debate? I think we're just about ready for act two?" Sam says.

"Right," Jack says getting on his bad knees with a grimace, and coming forward to take the baby out of her arms.

"I don't want him to just lay on the floor, but I'm going to need your help," Sam says.

"Don't worry. I thought of that when I was getting the blankets," Jack says reaching around the corner of the bathroom to reveal a basket. It's bright pink, and clearly served as Ava's Easter basked at some point in its recent past. It's lined with a few more towels, and will made a better makeshift bed than Sam had anticipated Caleb getting during his time in the cabin.

"Jack," she says with wet eyes.

"No need to cry tears of gratitude over this," he mock scolds, "It's the worse gift this little kid's ever going to get from me, isn't it little one? Yeah, Daddy's going to spoil you."

The words "Daddy" coming out of Jack's mouth right then have much the same effect on Sam that the naming had from Jack a couple of minutes ago.

Jack grins at her all cocky as he lays the little boy down in his nest, and turns to the woman he loves to finish the delivery.


	28. The Calvery

"Jack, he's not eating," Sam pouts.

"That's probably because you feed him an hour ago," Jack replies barely glancing at the baby.

"He's tiny. He should eat all the time until he gets bigger," she protests jokingly.

"Well, as far as I can see, all he's done since being born is eat and sleep and poop."

"That's what babies do," Sam defends glaring at the man that would dare to insult her baby, and to think she thought that she might love him!

Jack laughs, "That's what I'm saying. He's doing his job, and you have nothing to worry about."

Just then there is a huge noise outside of the cabin. Jack goes to the kitchen window to look out. "It's a snow plow."

"Do they usually clear things out this quickly? It's not even been a whole day," Sam says in amazement.

"It usually takes them a couple of days to get this far out of town. It hasn't even stopped snowing yet," he says in amazement.

Then there is a knocking at the door. Jack opens to see a rather frantic Jacob Carter. "Where is she? Where is Sam?" he demands.

Jack steps out of Jacob's way, so that Jacob can see his daughter's blond head bobbing above the head of the couch, "Sam your Dad's here," he says. The words are unnecessary, but they are Jack's attempt to get Sam to cover her breasts up before Jacob rushes over to her.

Jack's failed attempt.

"Sam, are you okay?" Jacob bursts, "Daniel told me that you were having a baby in the middle of no where! Why was he the one to tell me? Why didn't you call me? Why didn't you call 911? Or George? Why the hell did you come up to this cabin in the first place when you knew that you could have a baby any minute?"

"Well, I still had a month left. Besides, the snow this late in the year was a bit of a surprise. It was no big deal though. I sort of preferred the home birth. If I have another baby I'll probably do it the same way."

"If you have another baby you are actually going to plan to have your baby in the middle of the wilderness?" Jacob says in an incredulous voice.

"Well, I might do it in my own home, but there was nothing wrong with the way that my son was born," she replies with a raise of the eyebrows which just dares her father to contradict her.

"I brought the ambulance. It's going to take them a while to get down that god forsaken driveway of Jack's," Jacob says glaring at the other man as if Jack had made the driveway that length just to vex Jacob.

"I don't think we really need an ambulance. I really appreciate you coming to rescue me, Dad, but it was unnecessary. We're fine. I'm not even sure that I want to leave. He's very small, and I don't want him outside in the cold with his little lungs…"

"Oh you're going," Jack says with his arms crossed. She is about to argue against what she takes as a mandate form the man, but he shakes his head, "Your father moved heaven and Earth to make sure this little guy got to a doctor. That's love, Sammy, and you're going to accept it."

"You shouldn't have done it though. You should have just called. I would have told you that these poor men didn't have to drive in this bad whether to get here." It's only then that Sam notices her father's pants are wet from the snow way up to her waist. "Or that you would have to risk yourself rushing here, Dad," she scolds, "The roads must be horrible a long way off. You shouldn't have come!"

"They wouldn't come get you until I showed up and scared the pants off of them in person," Jacob replies.

"Oh my foolish Daddy," she says giving him a little bit of a side hug, which is the best she can manage with the infant, who had decided after all, he did want some dinner while he was in the area.

"I'm going to go get some things together Sam," Jack says walking past the little scene. He's seen it dozens of times in the half day since the baby was born, but it has never stopped being beautiful to him.

Jacob grabs Jack hand as he goes past, "Thanks for taking good care of my little girl," he says sincerely.

"Of course," Jack says.

Meanwhile, Caleb has finished his meal. Before Sam can move to burp him, her father has ceased the little boy up in his own arms, and is eagerly burping him while cooing to the child, "You look just like your grandfather, don't you little man?"

Sam doesn't argue with him, but in the hours since her son's birth it has not escaped her notice that the little boy looks a great deal more like his own father than hers.

-0-

Sam has never ridden in an ambulance before, and it is to her a strange experience. From what she saw on television she had always pictured such rides to be full of EMT's yelling at each other and rushing around. Perhaps if the people inside of the machine were in a worst state that would be the case today as well. As it is, she calmly sits on the table with her baby in her arms making small talk.

She finds herself more worried about how they are going to get back to the cabin (Jack not having been able to get his truck out despite the snow plowing) than about whether or not her child is going to be okay.

Yet, she loves her father all the more for his overreaction.

-0-

The test results have all come back fine on her little angle. The nurses keep trying to come in and wheel him away in his little bed so that Sam can "get some rest." She reacts like a mother bear to the suggestion, and they always end up going away. She feels a little bad about it. After all, the poor women are just trying to do their jobs, but she also doesn't see why someone who has been waiting around for motherhood the whole long time of a pregnancy should be continually pestered to postpone the beginning of motherhood a bit more.

They birth certificate forms are before her. She knows that it should be easy, but she can't bring herself to do it.

"What's wrong? Didn't you remember to think of a middle name?" Jack asks.

"That's not the part that I am having trouble with," she says with a sigh.

Jack's brow furrows as he looks the form over trying to identify the part that might be tripping her up.

Then he sees it. "Father's name?"

Sam nods. "I guess I should tell the truth, but…"

"Oh Sam. I hope you weren't thinking you were going to hurt my feelings by not lying on an official document?"

She shrugs.

"Or are we back to wishing that something else went on that line."

She nods.

"My dear Samantha, there is nothing on Earth you could write on a piece of paper that would make that child any less mine."


	29. Not So Solitary

Jack was supposed to pick Cassie up from school. Yet somehow, he had managed not to come back with the rest of his team when they came through the stargate. Daniel told her on the phone not to worry, but Daniel had a head injury so what did he know?

Everything in her wanted to run into the base, and see what she could do to help, but the baby was napping, and she had to pick up Cassie from school in less than an hour.

She felt trapped, and she felt like a horrible mother for feeling trapped by her children.

-0-

Cassie skips out of the school with her arm linked with another girl, and braided hair she didn't leave the house with in the morning.

Sam had never imagined herself ending up with a popular girl.

"Where is Jack?" Cassie asks throwing her back pack into the car in such a way that it wakes the sleeping baby.

"Sorry," she says more to the baby than to Sam. She puts a hand on his stomach in a vain attempt to calm him down while buckling herself with her other hand. Sam plasters a smile on her face and drives through the crying.

"He got stuck at work."

It's the best acting that Sam has ever done, but she is a very bad actor so that isn't saying much.

"Is he hurt?" Cassie asks.

"I don't know," Sam replies.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Cassie asks alarmed, "When the man you are living with does something that dangerous and isn't coming home you ask questions."

"No one knows. He's missing."

Cassie ponders for a long moment, "You're pretty good at finding people at work aren't you?"

"I guess," Sam admits.

"What do you say that the little tike and I spend the night at Janet's place, and you go to work and save Jack?"

"Cassie, I don't want you to worry. I am sure that Jack is just fine."

"I am sure that he would be a lot finer if you were there for him," Cassie insists.

"Honey, you are the priority here. There are people looking for him," she pauses.

"Sam, I haven't really answered that question about where I wanted to live now. I've been living with you for more than a month, and I've never told you if it was going to be a permanent thing or not. This is why. I'm terrified that I am going to hold the two of you back. That somewhere in the universe, someone is going to die, or maybe all of us are going to die, and it will be because you were at home checking my homework when you should have been saving the world. I really couldn't live with it if the person that didn't get saved was Jack."

"Cassie, it isn't a choice between you or him…" Sam begins.

"That's what I'm saying. Sam, he really needs you right now. Go be there for him. Let other people help you. I would rather live with you full time, but I really love Janet too. She told me she would be willing to be my mom full time, I don't see why she wouldn't agree to occasional emergency babysitting."

"It's not the same thing, Cass."

"I know, it's way easier."

"You are just making this argument, because you want all the perks of having two families," Sam teases.

"No kidding. Have you seen the loot that Charlie and Ava have? Sign me up!" Cassie teases back.

-0-

"I heard you got me back," Jack says barely recognizing Sam over the bandages that are wrapped around his head.

"I did," she agrees.

"Where are the kids, Sam?"

"Janet took them. Speaking of the kids, Cassie made a decision."

"Did she?" Jack asks trying to sound casual even with his stomach sinking within him. Why would she choose this moment when he was in so much physical pain to add on emotional pain? The kid didn't want him to be her dad. It was an obvious choice, because his carelessness has resulted in one of his children getting shot. Still, Cassie's only choice was him as a father or no father at all. At least when it came to the Janet Sam choice it was just choosing which mom to have. He could have taken rejection like that, but this…this was a bit too much.

"She decided that she wanted us to be her parents, with the provision that she gets to hang out with Janet whenever we are needed at work. Janet loves the idea. I thought that was a pretty generous proposition considering the fact that there is also newborn baby involved.

"What?" Jack says. He must be hallucinating. It's the drugs they gave him in surgery.

"Cassie wants to stay with us. Janet wants to take care of them sometimes."

"Janet is taking both the kids?" he asks still confused.

"Yes, for the last two days, and tonight too. Tomorrow you are going to have to brave the hospital on your own. Three days away from my kids is really too much."

"They aren't staying with her?" Jack says confused.

Sam wrinkles her brow. Perhaps he is not conscious enough for this discussion, "Jack, Cassie chose us. She wants to live with us."

"What is wrong with the girl?" he asks.

This causes Sam to laugh in relief. It sounds like the man she knows and loves.

"Speak for yourself. I am quite the catch," she teases. She hasn't missed how out of it he is though, "How are you Jack? Does it hurt?"

"No, but I'm guessing there are pain killers involved in that answer."

"You know what really sucks about this whole situation?" she whispers close to his ear, "We were only two days away from the check-up that would have cleared me for…amorous activities."

Jack groans looking down at his broken ribs, broken leg, and whatever the hell he was in surgery for. All of it pretty much guaranteed that he was not going to be cleared for amorous activities anytime soon, "Yep, the universe has definitely conspired to keep us apart."


	30. Tin Man

"Are you sure you are ready to be back?" Sam asks looking critically as Jack puts on the boots. She's pretty sure the only reason he is back a mere week after he got his cast off is the fact that he sucked up to the physical therapist. It wasn't that he actually flirted with the woman. It was just this thing Jack did, with waitresses, and nurses, and gas station attendants, anything female that he had to deal with on a daily basis (the men of the same professions were immune to his charms (usually)).

He just locked eyes with them, and let them get lost in his chocolate brown depths. Then he listened when they talked, and would start each interaction after the first by remembering some antidote they had let drop, or building on some inside joke that they had come up with previously.

He had them wrapped around his little finger. It was a symbiotic relationship really. The worker got to be actually entertained by a customer or patient, and Jack got the very best service.

She was just a little worried that his physical therapy, impressed by him knowing all the technical terms (how many time had that man been injured?) might have let him go to soon which might provide a determent to the man's life.

"I'm fine, how about you?" he asks cheekily, "You've been gone a whole lot longer than I was, and you didn't even have a surgery."

"She has a baby!" Daniel explains in horror.

"I believe O'Neill intended for his statement to be humorous. Do not get your panties in a bunch."

All of SG-1 stare at Teal'c for a long moment before Jack quips, "I vote that we take away his TV."

"I believe any attempt in that direction would result in more medical leave," Teal'c replies.

"Leave him alone. He doesn't have to sleep, and he's not allowed of base. He has to do something," Daniel defends.

"I gave him my copy of Wizard of Oz to watch," Jack pouts.

"I watched it. It was not a lengthy endeavor."

"Watch it again. You would be better off quoting the wizard than whoever that was, any day of the week," Jack insists.

Sam rubs her finger across her three-month old's chubby cheeks in the picture in her locker before slamming it shut. "Let's move out people," she commands.

"I think that's my line," Jack says.

-0-

It's the first time in three months that both of them are actually cleared for lovemaking. In light of that fact it feels like an excuse to say that she isn't in the mood, but it's really the truth. Seeing yourself as a robot is bound to cause a sort of existential crisis.

"Jack," she says trying to come up with an apology.

"It's okay. I'm half afraid that I would come with motor oil."

"Ew," she moans.

"Do you think they can do it?" he asks seriously.

"I hope so. I won't want to think about them spending their lives right next to each other without actually getting to come together."

"I hope that isn't our fate," he says with a rueful laugh.

It's not the first time that he's joked about them never being intimate, but Sam is pretty determined that it is going to be his last. Soon, she promises herself. Very soon.


	31. The Serpents Lair

"That's a nice…outfit," Jack pauses when he realizes that he has no idea what to call the thing that Sam is wearing.

"Lingerie, honey," she prompts.

"I know. I just thought there might be a more specific name for it. I've never seen anything that looked quite like that before," he says swallowing hard.

"Do you really want to talk about fashion terms right now?" she asks.

"No," he admits cross the distance between her. He gives her the sort of kiss she believed only happened in romance novels. It ends with him lifting her off the ground, and tossing her playfully on the bed.

"We saved the world today," she whispers.

"Yes, we did," he admits.

"The universe is rewarding us, by removing the curse," she says pulling him down next to her, not wanting to lose a second of contract.

"What say we leave the universe out of it."

-0-

Their hearts are beating as once, still at a rapid and syncopated rhythm from the activity they just finished. This is the definition of a perfect moment Jack thinks.

"I'm sorry," Sam whispers.

"Sorry?" Jack says confused.

"I know I'm not very good. You did all that waiting, and then…"

Jack reluctantly pulls Sam away from him just enough that she can see his face, and know how serious he is. "Sam. I don't know what Jonas said to make you think that, but he was an abusive bastard with no taste. What we just did…it was amazing. It should be the subject of an epic poem or an opera or something. I am enthusiastically looking forward too many repeats in our long life together. How was it from your point of view?"

"Really good," she says snuggling into his chest.

"Good, then we've got a consensus."

Jack is nearly to sleep, lulled by pure happiness. Then Sam speaks again, "I'm going to invite my mom to come stay with me tomorrow, unless you've changed your mind."

"Nope," he says running a hand through her hair.

-0-

The whole time that Sam makes small talk with her father she feels as if her stomach is doing summersaults. Finally, she says, "Could I speak with Mom?"

"Of course, honey," and they talk as her father makes his way down the hallway. He holds the phone up to her ear, and Sam is still sure that her father can hear every word.

"Hi, mom, how are you doing?"

"Pretty good," her mother says. It's an answer that means nothing. Her mother is 'pretty good' if she is the healthiest she's been in decades and she's 'pretty good' if she's at death's door.

"You've been using the respirator much?" That is something that is bound to get her a more specific answer.

"Not in weeks. I really want to see that baby of yours. When are you brining him up?"

"I thought maybe you could come down to see me. We have a room all set up. Two actually. One for the nurse. I made sure that there is space and connections for all of your machines."

"Honey, you have no idea how much I want to, but traveling is just so hard for me…" her mom begins.

"Come live with me mom."

"What?" Mrs. Carter gasps in shock.

"I'm asking you to live with me forever."

"Honey, you have little kids, a new man in your life. I would never burden you with…"

"You're not a burden. I wouldn't be asking if I hadn't thought this through. Jack is on board. In fact, it was his idea. I was the one who put the brakes on until after Caleb got a little older."

"He's still a baby, Sam. You don't know what you're saying, what you're offering, and giving up. Honey, I would never ask that of you."

"You're not asking Mom. I'm serious. I want you to come. If you'd rather stay with Dad that's fine, but I want you to have a choice. The first real choice you've had in decades. I know exactly what I'm getting myself into."

Her mother pauses, "You remember what I told you when you left for college?"

It comes back to her, a memory she had not thought of in years, she wonders how it could ever have left her conscious thought even for a second, "Yes, you told me that if I didn't leave now than I was never going to."

"I wanted you to leave Samantha. I wanted you to have a normal life. I still want those things for you."

"Mom, I want a life that includes you. Just promise me that you will think about it?"

"I will honey."

"I love you," Sam says. They always leave their conversations on a high note, knowing far better than most families how quickly everything can change, and leave you wishing you had said everything.

"I love you too, Samantha."

She hears her father's footsteps retreating from the room, and then hears his voice on the phone, "I never thought that you were capable of such cruelness." The phone is slammed down, and Jacob doesn't pick up when she dials the number quickly again.

-0-

It's two days later before her father calls her. "I'm sorry I was short on the phone," he says, remembering how quickly life can change.

"I'm sorry dad. Maybe I should have talked it over with you before I made the offer, but I promise that I was not trying to be cruel. I thought I was doing you a favor as much as I was doing one to mom."

"A favor?" Jacob spats, "A favor? You thought that when you took from me the only woman that I have ever loved you were doing me some sort of a favor?"

"I didn't know you loved her," Sam says quickly, but then she corrects herself, "I mean, I knew you had some familial feeling. Some sense of duty. I just thought that things were pretty much over between the two of you before the accident."

"I begged her to come back before the accident. I begged her to come back, and that's why it was my fault."

"I begged her too," Sam says, "All of this time I thought she came back because I was a whiny little baby."

"What a pair we are," Jacob says with a sigh.

"Jack told me once that I could forgive myself by forgiving you. I do not think that he was far wrong," she says. "Are you… have I misunderstood your relationship completely?" Sam wonders how that could be possible, "Are you really together? Really happy?"  
"Your mother left me years ago, Sam. She meant it."

"But she came back. You were going to reconcile."

"Maybe, but that was years ago."

"So, you just never talked about it? All of these years?"

"You never upset a cease fire, Samantha. I got to have her, in a fashion. I am allowed to be her devoted servant. In the old novels, that's always what happens to the lover who loses out in his suit, right? Sometimes I am almost grateful for her injury, even though it makes me a horrible monster to think such things. After all, if it were not for it I would not have seen her in so long."

"Dad, you could come too," she offers suddenly.

"Sam," Jacob says in a tired voice.

"I love you. I was trying to free you. I thought this was duty for you. I would love to have both of you in the house. I could free you from much of the daily care. You could see her without being her slave."

"It's more than I deserve, Sam," Jacob complains.

"No, you being loved is exactly what you deserve. If you don't blame me for mom coming back and getting hurt than you can't blame yourself. You should go and talk to mom. Tell her how you really feel, and talk about whether the two of you want to move. Okay?"

"Okay," Jacob agrees before the two of them exchange the usual I love yous.


	32. In the Line of Duty

It turned out that it wasn't Sam who picked up her parents from the airport when the decided to come. Sam was at that point in time in a prison cell at Stargate command. More properly, she was imprisoned by a Goa'uld in her own body.

Cassie was still a little shaken up by being the one to discover that her new mother was possessed by a Goa'uld.

Caleb was teething. Or maybe just screaming. The kid had a set of lungs on him, and he knew how to use them. Jack had once pointed out to Sam that he was what the baby books would categorize as a "difficult" child.

She'd threatened to divorce him if he ever dared to insult her baby that again.

He reminded her they weren't married, and she'd retorted with, "Then I'll just have to think of more painful ways to punish you."

"Hi, Jack," Jacob says greeting the man with one of those handshakes that are just a ploy to pull you into a hug. There is another ploy at the end of the hug as he gets his grandson out of Jack's hands.

"Young man, come down here," Mrs. Carter demands with all the firmness of a general. He obeys kneeling next to her wheel chair. She stares at him for a long moment of silence. "You'll do I suppose. Assuming you treat her right."

"I hope I do," Jack says.

"You could marry her," Dot points out.

"Dot," Jacob scolds lightly, all the while looking with hope at Jack.

"You're a force of nature, aren't you?" Jack asks Dot, "Well, I'm glad to have you a part of my family. I'm sure you'll whip us all into shape before long."

"Hand me the baby," Dot demands with a nod.

Jacob has no qualms about passing the screaming squirming four-month-old over to her hands, even though her hands are shaking. He is sure that if she could not handle it she never would have asked for him.

"What exactly do you hope to accomplish with that rhetoric?" Dot asks the child that is now in her arms.

The baby breaks off screaming, and crinkles an eyebrow at her.

"You're not impressive. We could all make more noise than that. We just choose not to. In a civilized society you have to try not to make noises others don't enjoy."

The baby continues to stare.

"There is already an awful lot noise in the world. Try adding some beauty to it,instead," she suggests.

"She just reasoned with a baby," Jack says in shock looking at Jacob.

"I know, she's pretty impressive," Jacob agrees looking at the woman in open love. Jack can't imagine that no one knew he was still in love with his wife if he went around looking at her like that. Then she looks up, and basks in the look of love, and Jack realizes that that look is brand new. Even though he never saw the two of them together before he can tell that there has been some cosmic shift in their relationship.

"Can I take that infant for you, ma'am?" he asks.

She hands the happy baby over reluctantly.

-0-

It's four hours before they have all the machines set up. Jacob sits on the couch too exhausted to begin the unpacking of his own room. They decided that the nurse room would go to Jacob. They would still need part time help, but with three adults, one retired, they would not need a full-time nurse with her own room.

"Things look like they are going pretty well between you too," Jack observes.

"Yes, we're fixing things. There is a lot to fix. She used to say that I was really selfish, but apparently I proved her wrong in the last few decades."

"You are anything but selfish, Jacob," Jack says with a smile.

"How about you and my daughter. Is there a reason she's not here?" Jacob asks nervously.

"It's classified Jacob. I'm sorry, but while you are living here you are going to hear those words a lot."

"I'm an old military man. I understand," Jacob pauses. "She's in danger though isn't she?"

Jack nods with a firm set of his jaw.

"You know, I could watch the children if you wanted to go and try to save her."

"Thank you," Jack says gratefully, "Please don't temp Cassie to tell you what is going on. She's not used to secrets the same way the two of us are."


End file.
